Jen Credible: Until The End
by Alexander - Godslayer
Summary: Follow the adventure of another teen superhero and friend of Kim Possible, as the two of them, and many others, get involved in the stitch that will define the destiny of the universe.
1. Got a date

**Jen Credible: Until The End**

"_Dear Jen:_

_How are you doing, kid? Heh, why do I even bother to ask? You must probably be slaying one or two monster here and there or imprisoning some other villain, as always. You know I don't mind, just as long as you keep taking care of yourself, or you know who's going to be there to scold you if I ever find you in a hospital bed or something like that. Though, not that I'm really worried, just had to remind you, you know why._

_So, how's this old geezer, you may wonder? Well, right now, I'm in the middle of Africa, not sure which part anymore. It feels like heat's melting my mind over here. All I know right now it's that I've been traveling around the desserts for weeks with two other companions, a journalist and a guide. We've been searching for the ruins I told you about the last time we've seen, remember? According to the manuscripts I've found in the Gaian Library, this could be the tomb of the very same Siddhārtha Gautama! Yeah, I know you must probably be thinking I'm just looking for the cat's fifth paw, but I really got a feeling I'm up to something good this time. Who knows? I may be able to find out more about the Buddhist religion than any other archeologist has done for centuries._

_But right now, my buddies and I have been blessed with the opportunity to rest in a town that happened to be around the way to the ruins, and while I was here, I found out I had the chance to send some mail, and so I decided to send you this letter, just to let you now I'm doing fine. I don't know when I'll be back in America, but I'll make sure to keep in contact with you. For now, just make sure to keep yourself safe. Yeah, I know I'm getting annoying with so much insistence, but hey, that's part of my work in your team too, remember?_

_Tell Dave to try not to screw it up next time, and Rose that she owns me a beer. Oh, and did I tell you to be careful? Just kidding. I hope we see each other again soon, Jen. Until then, if __there's any deity up there, may they watch over you._

_Your old friend, Jack Daniel__"_

X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X

The alarm went off right after an explosion was heard on the lower levels of the base. At that time, in the highest level, Professor Dementor, a world-wide known mad-scientist and, while not of the most dangerous, certainly one of the most frequent high-level threats to the world, walked toward the main room's computer. He already had an idea of who could be the responsible for the incident, but better make sure it wasn't just a mistake of his henchmen. Unfortunately, it seemed like the camera of the room that had gone ka-boom had been damaged and so, he couldn't spot the supposed intruders. Yet, he could still hear a couple of voices coughing.

"Are you crazy?!" A female, overriding voice exclaimed "We're here to stop the volcano from erupting! Not causing it ourselves!"

"You told me to think of a way to open a path!" Another voice, this one male, retorted.

"And couldn't you think of anything safer!?"

"Look, we got what we wanted; now let's go forth before the henchmen arrive!"

"FREEZE" That was a henchman's voice.

"Damn it…"

The rest he could hear were a series of punches and screams, the latest clearly coming mostly from his men. However, there was something fishy about the male and female voices. Either they had gone through some last change of their puberty since the last time they met, or they weren't who Dementor thought they were.

"But if it izn't Fräulein Possible… zen who could it be!?"

Cursing in his mother tongue, he smashed his fist on the computer panel. Here he thought that for once he would be able to carry out with his plans without any interfering since he heard that rumor about the teen-hero Kim Possible being retired from her heroic business. But who else was there to irritatingly annoy him now?

The answer didn't take long to arrive when suddenly a banging started come from the principal door and the same womanly voice spoke from the other side of it.

"Professor Dementor! Either surrender and come out in peace or we'll force this door and things WILL get ugly!"

Oh, no… not ANOTHER door knocked down!

"ZAT DOOR IZ OPEN!!" He screamed, loud enough to produce some echo through the lair.

The doorknob was pulled and the double door suddenly opened, revealing a pair of late teens standing side by side. They definitely weren't the duo he was used to. The boy had sandy blond and short hair and was wearing a brown jacket with multiple pockets, red t-shirt underneath it and simple jeans with a pack belt. Yet, he didn't seem to be carrying any special equipment.

"Hey! Who would have thought? It WAS open!" He stated, laughing a bit and looking at his friend.

The girl sighed. She had nearly black brown hair and at shoulder-length and was wearing some clothes that resembled the latest ones of Kim Possible, but with different colors. The sleeved top was dark blue and the pants were dust-colored. She also wore an equipment belt and black gloves.

Although they weren't the same, this team did remind the mad scientist of the one that tended to challenge him.

"Whatever" The girl stated "Professor Dementor, you can surrender now or we can kick your German butt. It's your choice!"

"And shust WHO in the vorld are you two?!"

"Your worst nightmare!!" The boy exclaimed, taking a pretentious posture.

The girl sighed and scolded him with a punch on the head. "Dave!"

"Ouch! Yeah, I know that's my name, but hey, it's not as impressive!"

"Yeah, right! Why don't you try to impress me and do the fighting for once?" She replied.

"C'mon, Jen. You know that's _your_ specialty"

Yeah, Dementor concluded, they definitely reminded him of Team Possible. He coughed, reclaim the duo's attention, whom seemed to have forgotten he was there and he wasn't happy they were there!

"Credible Investigations, at your service" Jen said, introducing herself and her companion "He's my partner, Dave Seer"

"And she's my leader" Dave followed "Jen Credible"

"Shall I repeat your options, Professor?" Jen asked maliciously.

"No need to, Fräulein Credible. I already know what I vill do" He replied, smirking.

They understood. "Butt kicking, it is then?"

"HENCHMEN, GO!!"

And following such order, a big number of muscular henchmen fell from the roof all around the room. There were about twenty or thirty, all of them wearing the same gray uniform and helmet and welding combat staffs with electroshock-bludgeon in both ends. Instantly, Jen adopted her fighting position while Dave walked back a couple of steps.

"Why is it that Kim's villains ALWAYS have henchmen?" He just had to ask.

"Would you rather demons?" She replied, just before jumping into the fight.

She ran forward the closest henchman and jumped at the right time to avoid his staff, kicking him in the head while stealing his weapon. She used it to beat two others who were nearby before throwing it against an approaching one, sending him flying backwards and opening a path between his comrades. She avoided another attack by flipping backwards and taking the opportunity to once again steal her enemy's weapon trapping it between her feet. This wasn't her kind of weapon, but since she wouldn't use her lethal axes on humans unless it was to-live-or-to-die necessary, anything useful would be okay.

Seven of them fell to the floor when she did a spinning attack, and then she jumped high into the sky to avoid the three men that tried to jump over her. Alas, they followed her in her fly along two more companions. And in the air, Jen electro-shocked the first one, kicked the second, grabbed the third and threw him against the fourth. The fifth suffered the same fate of the first one, expect for the fact that he was smashed _hard_ against the floor after suffering an electronic impact on the head.

And back on the ground, one henchman awaited to attack her with his weapon, but he missed as she landed both feet right on the non-electrocuted part of the staff. Another henchman tried to attack her from behind, but again, she stopped his weapon with one foot, ending up being held by both men's weapons while a group of their buddies jumped around and toward her once more.

"Doy!"

After throwing her weapon to the air, Jen quickly flipped to her side, standing both hands as she started to spin with all the adrenaline flowing throw her body. She flexed her arms and straightened them with all her might, raising her tornado kicks to the air and sharing them with anyone brave or fool enough for getting in her way. The weapon fell back to her hand just when she landed.

As she ran around them, the defeated henchmen just kept and kept piling up, and Dementor was really, _really_ angrier by every second.

"WHERE-ARE-ZOZE-LAZER!?" He demanded euphorically. Claiming for someone to grab the new laser-canon they had installed for security means and use it against that apparent half-sister of Kim Possible!

"Right here, baby!" Unfortunately, said "someone" happened to be no one else but the cocky sidekick.

With his jaw dropped, Demetor watched in awe as a red light concentrated on the tip of the installed gigantic weapon, and then, said red light exploded as a wide beam that ran across the room and sent flying away more than half of his men. Leaving just a few who just didn't dare to face the teenager girl any longer. Yet, they weren't fast enough, and in matter of seconds, the only one that reminded standing in the battlefield was none other but Jen Credible.

Passing her hand through her hair to remove it from her face, the girl breathed deeply before starting to the one man she had come from.

She smirked. "So, ready for prison?"

Gulping, the mad scientist stepped back slowly and trembling. Jen, who still had the electrical staff in her hand, had just found the right way to give it one last use.

Dementor's rival's catchphrase never suited him more. "OH, ZNAP!"

And then, everything went black.

By the time he woke up, they were no longer in his lair, not even in the volcano he had placed it. No, he was in the back of a police van, already handcuffed and along his men. Outside, which seemed to be the outskirts of the city he had threatened, the police was getting the remaining henchmen in some others van, while the city's Mayor, a tiny man with a funny moustache, expressed his thanks to the victorious duo.

"My heroic youngster, the city of Townsville is now in debt with you for stopping this madman from causing a volcanic eruption"

"It all comes with the job" Jen said, placing her hand behind her head.

"Is there any way we can repay you for your assistance, Ms. Credible and Mr. Seer?"

"Well, actually…" Dave started.

"If you'd be so kind to donate some funds for our team's activities, we'd be really grateful"

"Oh? Are you heroes for charge?"

"Not really, but…"

"We go to where we are needed" Jen explained "But everything cost money, and we hardly ever have enough for ourselves like to keep on with our business. So, every now and then, we need to ask for some assistance in order to go on"

"Oh, I see! Very well, then, that's sure a worthy cause for donating! Let's see how much we could settle!"

"Great!" Dave cheered.

"Thank you very much. We really…" Jen stopped herself when suddenly her cell phone began ringing "Dave, take care of it"

"Sure!"

Leaving the negotiations with the Mayor to her friend, Jen walked a few steps away to answer the call, which she already knew who it was from.

"What's up, Rose?" She asked to her team's secretary and person in charge of handling the economy and organization of their group.

"Got a new case, Jen" The Puerto Rican girl told her through the phone.

"WHAT!?" She had to be kidding "Already!? We just finished capturing Dementor!"

"I know, do I need to remind you whose idea was it to take over both hers AND Miss Possible's jobs?"

"No, you don't…" Jen replied, acknowledging both that she wasn't kidding and that she was right. When Kim Possible retired from her hero business because of reasons more than understanding, Jen was the one who instantly decided that her team would take care of the villains Kim used to keep on the line, along with the villains and demons they already used to handle. But boy… this was wearing them out! Just yesterday they had to face that demon-imitator Pazuzu again, today Dementor, and today again… who was it? Rose didn't tell her yet, but she almost didn't want to know. Man, why couldn't be a hero be _easier_?

"Anyway, what's this case about?"

"Cobalt"

"Crap…"

Cobalt… the sneakiest and most skillful thief Jen had ever known. If there was one, among all the villains she had faced, that Jen would consider her personal rival… that was bluish woman, Cobalt. No security system could spot her. No fortress was impenetrable for her. Whatever she was after, she'd get it without leaving as much as a footprint. Jen had some sort of respect for the woman's skill, specially because of how good as a fighter she was, but that could only fuel the rivalry between them.

"What did she steal this time?" Jen asked.

"Nothing, at least not yet"

"What do you mean?"

"Wade passed me over this information. He's been hacking Hench Co.'s computer system every now and then, to know about any possible move that any villain could do before they did it. He recently found out that Cobalt hired some transport services from their company. Apparently, she's heading for Japan."

"Japan? That's weird. Do you have any idea of what she might be after?"

"Not really. However, the name Yamanouchi appeared on the information Wade managed to obtain"

"Yamanouchi? That sounds… familiar"

"A secret Ninja School settled in the high mountains of Japan." Rose explained "Remember Ron Stoppable? He studied there for a couple of weeks as a transferred student"

"Ron's involved with that school?" Jen asked "Do you think we should call him?"

"No time. If Wade's calculation and my speculations are right, Cobalt should have already arrived to at least Japan. We already managed to get a ride for you, from one of the persons Kim helped, that is"

Jen sighed, which, Rose knew, was the equivalent to a nod in their conversations. It wasn't like them to do things this way, but it wasn't like they had much of an option either. Their funds were never too big, but there was the opportunity to take help from the people Kim used to help when she was doing these jobs. It just didn't felt right to charge for favors done by someone else, but they knew the reason was worth it. And in the end, like Dave used to tell, if they were going to take over Kim's responsibilities, they should also have some right to the privileges that came with her job, right?

"An airship should be picking you and Dave at Townsville's airport. You two will be able to rest and recover during the flight"

"Understood. So I guess we oughta go to this secret ninja school, right?"

"It's our best lead. Good luck"

"You know, you _could_ bring me some good news every now and then, too"

"Oh! Now that you mention it, a letter from Jack arrived just this morning!"

"No way! Really!? What does he say?"

"Not much, but he's okay and having a good time, apparently. I'll give you the letter as soon as you get back here"

"Well, glad to hear that. Dave and I will be heading to the airport now"

"Talk ya later, then"

"Have a nice day"

Nice? Yeah, nice way to put it! Well, if she managed to kick Cobalt's blue butt, then maybe this could be called a good day, even better if she managed to send her to prison. Just when she closed her cell-phone and put it back in her pocket, she turned around to meet with Dave.

"Hey! So…" She started, excited "How much did we earn?"

"Well…"

"C'mon! Tell me!"

"Nothing"

Jen swore: If silent awkwardness could be measured, Dave had just broken a new record.

"What!? B-b-but WHY!?"

"Well… I made a joke about his hat, and apparently, he took it way too seriously and… heck! You know I'm not good at negotiations! This is your fault, you should have handled it!!"

"Dave…"

"W-what?" The blonde boy asked, suddenly scared of the girl's sinister tone of voice.

"You know I want to kick your ass right now, don't you?"

"…yeah"

"I mean, _reeeeaally_ want to"

"…_yeeeeaah_…"

"So can you tell me just WHY the HELL are you SMILING!?"

"Because you won't?"

'_Smartass'_, she thought. At times like these, she'd wish he didn't know her so well. But yeah, she wasn't going to kick his sorry ass; however, he wasn't going to escape from one good, painful and surprising STAMP!!

"OUCH!!"

Which… would leave the boy jumping on one foot while holding the other one with both hands. Humming, Jen just walked away.

"Stop whining! We got a plane to catch. And like Jack would say: Do not screw up next time!"

"Okay, I'll try" The sidekick said, starting to follow his friend "Heh, good old Jack, wonder where he might be right now"

X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X

And speaking of the devil, one might say, by the time his letter arrived to its destination, its writer was just about to reach his.

If there was one kind of place that the doctor and archeologist Jack Daniels would define as the most resembling one to hell on earth, that was the dessert, specially the biggest and hottest one in the world: The Sahara. The landscape was nothing more than endless sands and rocks, with not even the slightest drop of water in miles around, and the heat wouldn't even let you see clearly what's ahead of you, as it would always blur your view like warm fog. The walks seemed endlessly, the temperature could embrace even your bones, and the only thing you can think about is for it to end, which would never happen as soon as you'd wish. Yeah, this was definitely hell on earth.

However, the discovery he could make from this would definitely be worth it. All the hints agreed on the trail he was following: The way to the east, in paths that could no longer be done by either horses or camels. The only unexplained wonder, regardless of how many books he read, was why the mythical leader of the Indian's religion would have been buried in such foreign land. Well, he did have his theories, which he could probably verify at the tomb as soon as they found it.

Yet… if there was something his companions and he shared, that was the feeling of something being amiss.

"It _should_ be around here, right?" Jack asked, looking around.

It wasn't like there was any place of the dessert that could be unmistakably recognizable, but he knew they had followed the path just like it was instructed in the millenary manuscripts he had discovered. It should be at least distinguishable in the panorama. They had been extra careful with the locations and instructions. It just _had_ to be around here.

"Theoretically, it should" Kei Amakura, one of his partners, said.

"Maybe we skipped it?" Jack suggested.

"Maybe… or maybe this is all just a bogus"

Jack signed. Kei Amakura had proven to be a worthy companion for this journey; however, the young Japanese man did not share his optimism and enthusiasm on their quest. As a non-fiction writer, Kei was too much like a scientist: He needed proof, scientist proof if possible, to believe in things. Or so was the impression he usually gave, because Jack still couldn't understand how such type of man could adventure himself into a trip like this when he knew this could be an actual bogus. Of course, it _could_ be a bogus just because they didn't have scientist proof, but Jack was sure this wasn't one. His sixth sense never failed him in this kind of situations. He just knew this was real.

"The tomb is lost" Sheek, the guide, said in his Muslim accent and not so good English "Desserts guards the tomb for a reason. It won't be revealed easily"

Moustafa "Sheek" Rorenchu, a man of low profile who preferred to go by his nickname, wherever he had got it from. Though, actually… to be more accurately: a _mouse_ of low profile. Only heaven knew how this was possible, but apparently, as Jack and Kei learned from the town where they met Sheek, nobody seemed to care, or even notice, that he was a mouse! A speaking, green, hat-and-tunic-wearer, anthropomorphic and funny looking mouse!! And an excellent guide too! Jack even doubted they could have gotten a better one, and after some days of traveling with him, the fact that he was a mouse… well, it just didn't seem _that_ weird anymore.

"What do you mean?" Kei asked.

"Ancient tombs are place of soul resting. Nest for spirits. Spirit wish for peace. For tomb to reveal to us, tomb must trust us. We must call forth tomb"

Jack and Kei couldn't help looking at each other for a second in shared discomfiture. The worst part was that, as stupid as that sounded, they just didn't have any better idea.

"And… just how do we do that?"

"…I'm just a mouse"

Yeah, _THAT_ was his typical quote for "I don't know" or "Don't ask me anymore", probably the only thing from him both of them were tired of.

"How about reading over the notes again?" Kei proposed.

Without any better idea, Jack just grabbed his bag and placed it on the sand and took of a couple of book for him and Kei to check them out. Not that they actually expected to find a way to "call forth tomb", but it was the best they could do.

Maybe a bit more of Buddhist material would have been useful, but… they had to work with what they had. While Kei double-checked the supposed location of the tomb they were looking for, Jack reviewed some documents from the Heian period, of the ninth century, particularly those he had thought to be the least important. These ones spoke about "Sangai", which literally means "Three worlds". In some way, those three worlds were two different representation of reality and existence, one of them meaning Past, Present and Future, and the other one, more accurately in his opinion, meant the spiritual world, the physical world, and the one in between, which consisted in the reality seen through human's eyes, as the living body was considered through these beliefs as the fusion of both worlds, being physical and spiritual simultaneously. This one "world" had a name on it, which escaped him right now. He remembered that it meant the possibly main maternal organ on a woman, though. So…

"How do you say 'womb world' in Japanese?" He asked Kei.

"Taizo-kai"

Jack was about to nod to that, but he couldn't, as he suddenly got to stand up and grab his books tight while the sand under his feet started to move violently. The three adventurers couldn't believe their eyes as the entire terrain shaped itself like by art of magic with them being in the middle of it. The sand wasn't attempting to cover them. On the contrary, they were actually going down, but just because the dessert was, like, opening a crater right beneath them!

"Taizo-kai! Taizo-kai!" Sheek repeated, apparently enthusiastic "The tomb is called! You did it!"

And as unbelievable as that sounded, the truth was revealed when the sands stopped moving, and in the deepest of the recently created depression, a high construction had been revealed!

"Is… is that…?"

"Yes!" Jack confirmed, a big smile showing in his face "It's the tomb!!"

With their strength renewed, the group ran down toward the recently discovered building. And man, it was huge!! Far more amazing and exciting than what any of them expected. This would surely category as one of the biggest tombs discovered in the world. Its size was comparable to the biggest Buddhist temples he had heard of. It was hard to believe such construction could have been covered by sand, specially in terrains like the ones they were now. But regardless, they found it and that was all that mattered. Now, just where was the door?

It didn't take long for them to find it, and their anxiousness was making it hard to keep it cool. The entrance was a double door made of heavy rock. As expected from these kinds of ancient structures, there were many things engraved on it, such as oriental symbols, including what seemed like two worlds that Jack asked Kei to translate.

His face became puzzled when reading it. "Amara… Matrix?"

Jack blinked. "What does that mean?"

"I'm not sure" Kei admitted "In some other context, 'Matrix' could mean Womb. But Amara…" He stopped, reflecting on it for a moment "It does ring a bell, but from another culture"

"Which culture?"

"Hindu mythology"

Now that was weird. But of course, it wasn't like they were going to stick there just to wonder about that mystery.

"Any idea of how to open this?" Jack asked Sheek.

"…I'm just a mouse"

Jack and Kei sighed and then proceeded to force the door open. While Jack, being a really bookworm, wasn't in an optimistic condition, Kei was someone who always kept himself in good shape, so moving the heavy stone, while hard, wasn't impossible. Soon, the three of them were inside, and before both humans could notice, Sheek had taken out a torch and lighted it, illuminating the dark path ahead, which leaded them to a descending stair of old, fragile steps. Fortunately, there were no accidents as they went down. They half expected a labyrinth up ahead, but it turned out that the tomb consisted mainly of just one main and tall room that had its own illumination thanks to the window-like holes from the top of it. Jack had never felt so fulfilled in his life with such discovery.

The ancient coffin was there, right in front of them! It looked just like he had imagined it. Old, made of rock, a bit shattered, with a heavy lid and with lots of symbols around it, particularly a smaller version of the "Taizo-kai" impression engraved on the lid. The surrounding, with obviously lot of sand around, was full of oriental sculpture, such as pillars (one of them already knocked down), statues and one big structure placed right in front of the tomb (opposite to the one and only door) which meaning they couldn't quite figure out yet, but that looked like a giant gravestone that nearly reached the roof. All of it was just so amazing…

However, not everything was quite good around here, and a really big disturbance filled them when they noticed something that didn't belong there. Something which's presence here just didn't make sense at all.

"What's this?" Kei asked, as he noticed a couple of books on top of the grave.

No, they weren't even books. They were… a magazine and a notebook!?

"What the…?"

They didn't even look old. These things could hardly have existed for more than a decade. Kei passed the notebook to Jack, while he checked over the actually modern magazine. _A Japanese magazine!?_ This just didn't make sense, how could this be here? Weren't they the ones who had discovered the tomb? And wait, this was an occult-themed magazine!?

"Kei, this is written in Japanese" Jack mentioned "And… it was written by hand! The paper doesn't even seem to be old!"

What in the world could this mean? How could these things have reached this place? And what did they have to do with it anyway? Wait a minute!

"Special Article…" Kei read out loud, translating the heading of a page of the magazine. "The Gaians and the Miroku" Why did that ring a bell? He knew that 'Miroku' was the name given to the Indian High Priest in the oriental side of the world, but …

"Did you say Gaians!?" Jack suddenly asked.

Of course! He had mentioned it. "Yeah! What were the Gaians, again?"

"A religious factious" The archeologist answered "No longer active, but it was a document that supposedly came from their library which gave me the first lead to find this place"

So it _did_ have something to do with this! But that still didn't answer most of their questions. If they were the first ones here in centuries, how could these things be here, in this tomb? Had someone actually come here before JUST to leave these things and forget about them? Now how much sense did that make!?

"Kei, could you translate this?" Jack asked, handing over the notebook. It had a few words written per page, but nothing he could understand.

Kei did so.

"Call it what you will – a revelation from god, or a curse of the demon king. The fact remains that our world came to an end" He said while reading, and then he moved to the next page. "A heretic called upon an unearthly light, and devastation ensued. Chaos crawled out of the depths of the ocean, from the black abyss." Again he moved to the next page, feeling more and more worried with each line he read. "Death upon death… Nothing but death in this barren land. Who can we pray to? There are only demons and fiends here." The next page was the last one. "A voice in the dark beguiles me, 'Truth is a mystery, unraveled by the candles' flames.'" Only then, he looked at the cover of the notebook to find out where the text was from: "The Journal of a Man Who Wandered into Another World"

Silent remained, along with a heavy feeling of uneasiness. All they could do was to wonder whatever all this meant, or how had these thing gotten here. Granted, it wasn't like they had any way to really solve this mystery, but _still_… there was this feeling that just wouldn't let them alone. A feeling that was telling them that something was amiss, that something was… wrong, and that, somehow, they could be in… danger?

What none of them happened to realize, was that now, they were being watched…

"Who would write that?" Jack asked, looking at Kei.

"Beats me"

Jack looked at Sheek.

"…I'm just a mouse"

"This doesn't make any sense…"

"It does" A new voice said.

All heads turned toward the room's entrance, just then noticing a figure that none of them recognized. Not that they could anyway. Save for the fact that the figure was clearly female, there wasn't much more to say yet since she was still covered in the shadows of the hallway, making her features indiscernible. The mere fact that it wasn't just the three of them was disconcerting enough. Who was that woman and how in the world had she found this place?

"You have follow us!" Sheek accused, practically answering his companions' wonder.

They heard her laughing. "As if I could have _anything_ to do with losers such as you who have nothing better to do with their time than sneaking into places like this!"

"Well, my dear lady" Jack began, trying to stay calm and polite, even though the girl seemed to be anything but nice "Exactly what are you doing here then?"

"Me? I got a date"

"A date?" Kei asked bewildered.

"That's right!" She confirming, stepping out of the shadows and showing herself as a really beautiful young lady of about twenty years, maybe less. Long, radiant blond hair and beautifully deep blue eyes accentuated her elegant and well formed figure, which was pretty well shown through her red and black cheerleading uniform. "A date with destiny!"

Now, just from what hole had this girl popped out from? She, with her words and so unfitting attire for the location, made nearly as little sense as the mystery they were trying to solve just before she arrived. Then again, didn't she just say that it all did made sense?

Kei felt scared, but decided to take his chances, and so, he approached "So, anyway we can help y-!!"

But he never got to finish that sentence. As soon as he was in her arms' reach, one hit from those thin and apparently weak arms was enough to send him flying toward the wall, regardless of how unbelievable that sounded. A big crack reminded on the stone Kei smashed, and there he remained sitting. Sheek instantly ran to assist him, while Jack just stared in terror at the not just beautiful, but also deadly girl who was now approaching towards him…

Or so he thought, until he got out of the way between her and the stone coffin.

He didn't like the way this was going.

"…**Are you the one who has been seduced by the power of darkness?"**

All the present ones, except for the girl, looked around for the source of that voice, which seemed come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, as if the sound was simply an echo of the room. But… was that really a _sound_?

And what did it mean by that? Could it be referring to…?

"Told you I had a date" The cheerleader said, answering Jack's inner question, when he looked at her.

"**Humans ****and demons alike… are all destined to die. Every life must come to an end. Yet, still you challenge the order of the universe."**

It… wasn't through the wind or the material. No… that voice… it was as if it appeared right in their minds.

"So what if I do?"

The whole tomb trembled, as if angered with the girl's reply. The voice also sounded angered.

"**Do not lose sight of the truth! Your struggle is nothing but futile"**

"We'll see about that…" She replied, sounding as if she was containing her own anger "You can come out and prove yourself that. Bring what I came for: Your key to heaven!"

The trembling suddenly came back, more intensive than before, moving the sand and the ground together and gathering fractures around the whole construction, specially in the coffin. It ended only when the lid, having gathered uncountable fissures, was blown into thousands of tiny pieces as if something had exploded inside. Then, only silence remained.

Trembling because of his fear, but driven by his curiosity as an archeologist, Jack did the same thing the cheerleader was doing: He approached to the coffin and took a look inside, half-expecting something to crawl out of it, but finding it absolutely empty. Confused, he looked at the dangerous girl, who was looking around frenetically while pressing her teeth hard together.

"What's going on?" He dared to ask.

"He's here… somewhere…" She replied, still looking around. However, that answer only increased his worries.

"Who?"

"So much for an archeologist!" She said, this time looking at him and practically scolding him "The High Priest… Daisoujou!"

A bell rang, echoing through the place and alarming everyone in it. It seemed like the heightened sound of a tiny bell, and for the rhythm of it, it sounded like… a sutra?

"**So be it. It is my duty to save those who have gone astray."**

Instantly, the cheerleader adopted an improvised fighting position, still looking around for her apparent enemy.

"**My sutra shall grant you eternal rest. Now… receive my salvation! Accept your death!!"**

The silence before the storm surrounded them only for a few seconds 'til they heard that bell again… and what seemed like explosions surged from the sand, which turned out to be creatures emerging from beneath it. In matter of seconds, the place was crawled with fiends that Jack recognized as "Arachne"s, spider-like demons he had known about from Jen's previous encounters with them, which made them part of his large archive about demons. These creatures' body was mostly the one of a spider (a giant one, of course), thought with much more deadly spikes at the end of its eight legs, but while keeping the typical arachnid abdomen, their upper body was humanoid and feminine, showing bare breasts and oval and hairless heads, but still with those spiky legs instead of arms and big insect-like red eyes. They all shrieked, high and loud, in premonition to the upcoming fight, and then they charged forward to the cheerleader.

Stepping aside, Jack ran towards his companions and quickly helped Kei to stand up.

"Butts out, we have to get out of here"

"We can't" Kei told him.

"What!?"

"The tremor blocked the entrance" He made him notice

"…fuck!" He cursed. He wasn't one who'd usually swear, but nobody could tell him that the situation didn't practically ask for it, specially with two arachnes approaching them right now. "Any ideas, Sheek?"

He was actually expecting his typical 'I'm just a mouse', however, their surprise could simply not be hidden when the petite guide suddenly let out a battle cry and withdrew two sables which made them wonder just where had he kept them, as both weapons were actually larger than him. But just as quickly as he pulled them out, he jumped with amazing agility to battle the demons. Promptly, his blades cut a nice numbers of the spiders' legs, reducing their mobility, and then he jumped on top of one, practically separating the human and spider sides as he cut it in half.

"Just a mouse" Jack said, amazed of their buddy's fighting skills.

"Talk about low profile!" Kei exclaimed.

The cheerleader, on the meantime, was fighting a bigger number or arachnes, all by herself, but without so much troubles either. Her thin and agile body eluded all the tackles and attacks they tried to make on her, and her punches were precise and powerful, every single one enough to send each demonic spider to the nearest or the farthest wall with just one hit, or to make even nastier maneuvers, such as piercing one arachne's chest with her bare arm, grab another one's head with the same arm's hand, and pull the demon through its sibling's body right before smashing both of them against another arachne. Another was sent flying, and another was crushed against the floor as she bathed herself in their blood, but for each one she killed, more and more would come.

Sheek wasn't giving up either, regardless of how many of these monsters would appear, but that didn't mean he was having this as a cakewalk either. He was practically jumping from one arachne to another, attacking in every opportunity. Eventually he found a free spot on the floor where he could land, and once there, he turned around facing the amazing horde of nasty bug… and ran as fast as his little legs would allow him towards them, making paths between or below them, cutting everything that stood in her way and leaving a trail of death and/or mutilated arachnes behind him, until one of them intercepted his blades and stopped him on death track, confronting him on a match of strength, which wasn't really the mouse's field. And on top of that, another arachne was right behind him!!

However, his despair dissipated quickly as Kei, now recovered, kicked the dirty arachnid demon, saving his ally. While not much of a fighter, Kei knew that being just a witness wasn't really an option. Problems came when he suddenly felt something spiteful and sticky surrounding his upper body and arms: An arachne's web. With his severally reduced mobility, Kei turned around to see the one spider that was holding him with its muggy web, and to spot just in time another one jumping towards him! Luckily, kneeling was just enough to avoid him, and right after that, Sheek cut the net holding him to the demon, and Kei summoned all of his arms' strength to break free of the sticky maze surrounding him, quickly going back to the fight.

Even Jack was fighting, with surprising calm thanks to his shared experiences with Jen, and using a very unusual yet quite effective weapon: An insecticide spray he was keeping in his bag. Not powerful enough as poison to actually kill them, but more than enough to irritate them and leave them temporally blind, making them easy targets for Sheek or the cheerleader. But he wasn't really trying to defeat as many as he could, but actually searching for way to stop this crazy situation. If there was only… wait, the pillar with which he just bumped into while walking backwards… it had a severe crack near its base. Could this…?

"Girl!" He didn't really trust the cheerleader, but like they say: Your enemy's enemy is your friend, right? Or at least your ally on your current situation.

An exchange of glares was enough to transmit what he wanted to tell her. The cheerleader got rid of the arachne holding her arm and jumped, with superhuman capability, from one extreme of the room to another, landing right beside the indicated pillar and hitting it hard on its crack. Like Jack expected, the girl's amazing strength was enough to break the stone and lead the heavy column to fall hard on the floor, squashing a big number of demons and giving them a surprising moment of peace. Kei and Sheek just finished killing another arachne together, but the rest remained quiet for a moment. Were they impressed for the latest mass murdering of their siblings? Or were they waiting for something?

Then they all hear it… (or felt it)… Daisoujou's voice again!

"**Fool… how long will you remain attached to life? No matter how many candelabra you gather, the shadow on your heart will not be lifted."**

"Candelabra…" The cheerleader repeated in a whisper…

"**You shall be consumed by the fire of your worldly desires!"**

"That's it!" She suddenly exclaimed.

Only then Jack noticed the sidepack on the back of the girl's waist, from where she pulled out just what was mentioned: A candelabrum, one of classical appearance and seven red candles on it. She held it between her hands, pressing it tight, as if she were focusing hardly on it… and then, the seven candles got suddenly lighted up, its fire causing a sort of red fog to float around the room. The arachnes seemed… scared of that, for some reason. The cheerleader was looking around once more, looking for someone, until she finally spotted it by looking up… and then she smirked.

"Found you"

The guys looked up too, finding the one that was causing all this, the one summoning the demons and owner of that sinister voice. It wore traditional clothes of a priest, or more precisely, as high priest, like the girl had said, but the disturbing fact was not its clothes, nor the fact that it was floating freely in the air while staying in a Buddha-like sitting position. What really made it creepy was the fact that the "guy", so to say, was nothing but bones! Only his face and hand could be seen through the clothes, but they were only a skull and some skeleton fingers.

What kind of being was this? Jack had never heard of a demon like this.

The cheerleader punched and kicked two more arachnes that stood in her way, and then she ran toward the supposedly giant gravestone, jumping on it and, to the amaze of the few witnesses, start running it up! At this, all the demonic spider tried to stop her, a few even standing in her way, but she kept running upwards, removing any enemies from her path but, Jack noticed, without using her right hand, which seemed to be glowing… more and more with each second.

Finally reaching the end of the gravestone, the girl jumped from the top of it and to the skeleton priest, finally using then her glowing fist to land the most amazing impact ever seen by anyone in the room. An explosion of light blinded them for a second and the next thing they knew is that the cheerleader landed back on the ground while the arachnes let out a dying scream as their bodies turned into sand and disappeared. She had done it…

Or so they thought for a moment, but when they looked up again, they found out that the so called Daisoujou wasn't really done yet. The attack had destroyed most of its body, but the skull was still attached to the shoulders, the shoulders to the right arm, and it to the right hand. And in said hand… there was _that_ bell.

Just when she looked up, she was met by nothing less painful than a rain of thunder falling right on top of her. She felt the electrical impact ran through her body, torturing every nerve and causing small burns through her clothes. Yet, she stood still and firm as she could despite of the pain, growling and pressing her teeth. More thunders fell, and the men felt even worried about her.

"**Now… DIE!!"**

The bell rang once more… and an incredibly big thunder broke through the tomb's roof and fell right on top of her, just to be met by her battle cry and her bare hands blocking the electrical energy, which was not only stopped, but also sent back to its invocator!

No more words of Daisoujou were heard. The last remains of its body turned into dust after receiving its own attack, and from that… something fell to the ground: A candelabrum identical to the cheerleader's.

Tired, the girl fell on her knees for a moment, and Jack considered approaching toward her… just to be received with hostility as she turned away the hand he offered and gave him a threatening stare.

"Stay away if you value your life" She warned him.

Somehow, he didn't feel really threatened, but he knew that it would be better to listen this time, so he simply stepped back, letting her stand up by herself and walk toward her prize: the fallen candelabrum.

"What now?" Kei asked, close to Jack. The archeologist only shrugged.

But the story wasn't quite over yet.

"What the-!?" The girl suddenly exclaimed.

Just when she was about to pick up the candelabrum from the sand, it flew away from her hand! And when she followed its track by sight, she saw it landing on the hand of someone who wasn't there before.

On the top of the giant gravestone, two persons looked down at her. Two women, both of them young, and one of them had the candelabrum, _her_ candelabrum!

"Give me back that!" She exclaimed, her anger returning.

"Where is he!?" One of the girls, the one not holding the candelabrum, exclaimed.

She didn't know (yet) who they were talking about by "He", but she couldn't care less. For the cheerleader, those girls had already gone over the limits, FAR over the limits! And they were going-to-_PAY!_

Growling out her effort, the blonde girl picked up the very same column she had hurl down before and lifted it with her own hands, regardless of how impossible that seemed. And as if that wasn't enough, she threw it at full speed toward the other girls!!

But even such demonstration of inhuman strength couldn't be enough, as the pillar was suddenly cut in half by one of them. Both half parts fell back to the ground along with the girl. She wasn't the one who had the candelabrum, she was the one who had made the question. She was young, probably not even twenty, had short black hair and Asian features, and she was wearing a light gray skintight suit that covered even her hands and feet and included many accessories around it, including a katana's sheath in her back, in which she put back the crystalline sword she had just used to cut the pillar, a couple of combat knife in a sheath attached to her legs, an equipment belt and some sort technological accessory on her left wrist, whatever it was.

"WHERE-IS-HE?" She asked again, clearly angry.

The cheerleader stayed quiet for a moment, apparently thinking about something, but then she snapped back to her senses, ready to kick this tomboyish girl's ass. Her entire body glowed for a moment with the same energy she previously charged her fist with, and then she let free of that energy by giving a strong stamp to the ground and conducting that power through it, giving birth to a threatening crack that went toward the girl, freeing a golden light from beneath the ground. The Asian teen dodged that, but didn't realize it was only a distraction that would leave her open to the cheerleader's next and direct attack: A punch she barely managed to block, but that still sent her flying backwards, directly towards Jack to be precise. The older man caught her between his arms and both ended up against the tomb's wall, which was strong enough of an impact to leave them both on the floor for a moment.

The blonde girl started walking towards them, determined to put an end to this girl who dared to get in her way, but she stopped when she heard the unmistakable sound of someone landing behind her. She smiled. The other girl, the one who held the candelabrum, had just come down!

This one girl's appearance was far more unusual than the other one's. She also wore a skintight full body suit, though this one was black with green lines and denoted far sexier curves. There was a pouch beside her left knee, but there didn't seem to be any other particular thing or garment, except for the curious-looking eye-patch covering her right eye. She also had long raven-black hair, but the unusual element of her was her pale green skin, something that was definitely odd. Of course, not that it mattered much anyway, since she would be death soon and the candelabrum would be back in her hands.

But almost like a provocation, the green-skinned girl quickly threw the candelabrum over her and toward her partner, who caught it right on time.

"Got a death wish!?" The cheerleader threatened.

The green lady looked at the blonde girl, one serious green eye meeting a couple of angry blue ones, and faced her.

"Leave her to me and get them out of here!" She exclaimed for her partner.

"But-!"

"Do it!" She exclaimed, and for some reason, her hair started to float around her head, as if wind flew through it.

Understanding that her partner, the tomboyish girl nodded and went for the three men in the room.

"Interesting… power" The cheerleader said. She could… _feel_ it. It was there, through the air, coming from her green opponent and reaching her, tickling her face, and it was actually very powerful. But of course, not even close to powerful as _her_ power! "Very well" She added smiling, her entire body beginning to glow with her golden energy as strange marks started to appear all over her skin "Let's wrap this up… shall we?"

Just like the other woman, the blonde's hair began to float around because of the energy flowing through every last cell of her being. Both adversaries could feel their powers colliding. The ground began to shake again, stronger and stronger with each second. The sand began to float around, causing a violent sandstorm right inside the tomb and reducing everyone's visibility. Cracks began to appear all around the ground, all of them revealing that yellowish bright. But on top of all that, and as consequence, was the worst of the worst: The tomb was falling apart!

By that time, visibility was nearly null. Jack, Kei and Sheek couldn't do anything at this point but only let themselves be carried to wherever the Asian girl was taking them. Soon they found themselves in a stone platform which was probably a fallen part of the structure, and then they heard two of the three girls screaming, but couldn't distinguish who they were. But by the time they noticed, they weren't in the tomb anymore, but flying on the stone platform they were placed which had been, somehow, threw out of the building at an unbelievable speed! It lasted only a few seconds until they landed on a rock field, outside the depression that revealed the tomb. But the fact that they reached there was unbelievable already.

However, the same magic that moved the sands was now playing its trick backwards and burying the falling crypt once again. Inevitably they felt sad for their discovery's fate, but they knew there was something more important to worry about right now: The girls, but just where were them!?

"Over there!" Sheek exclaimed, pointing with his blade to one spot in the disappearing depression, where they could see the Asian girl running against the sand's flow and fighting her way to avoid getting entombed herself, and she was carrying her partner on her shoulder. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like they were going to make it.

"We got to help them!" Kei exclaimed.

"We can't" Jack stated "If we jump in there, we'll be suck by the sand."

"But what do we do!?" The Japanese man asked.

"Look, look!!" Sheek exclaimed.

The struggling girl raised her left arm up and the accessory on her wrist shoot a tiny grappling hook that reached the rock field they were placed. The men instantly held its metallic cable as hard as they could.

"At the count of three!" Jack proposed.

"THREE!!" The three of them screamed and instantly began to pull with all their might.

With their combined efforts, they managed to get both girls out of there and bring them to safe land just around the same time the sands stopped moving and there was no longer any sight of the ancient tomb. Once on safe land, the Asian girl leaned her partner down. The green girl was barely conscious.

"Is she okay?" Kei asked.

"Yeah, she's just… tired" The tomboyish girl replied.

Kei looked back at where the tomb had been, ironically, entombed again. He was still trying to pile up the pieces of what happened back there. Everything just went so fast and unexpected, and he still couldn't comprehend just how the hell they got out of there. Furthermore, who were these girls? And who was that cheerleader they met? Who had been an enemy and who had been an ally?

They fought, right? In the last moment, everything was decided in the fight between the cheerleader and the green lady. And only one of them came back, and in her partners arms. That could only mean one thing, and that was that the cheerleader had been buried in the crypt's collapse. She was either death already or choking her last breaths with what little air might remind there for her, either way, there was nothing they could do.

Sheek had already put his sables back to where they belonged, wherever that may be, and now he was whispering a prayer of his land in a language nobody could understand. Apparently, being still alive was enough for him to be thankful and forget everything else.

Jack sighed all the adrenaline out and sat down on the floor. This journey sure had more than one unexpected twist, and there sure were a lots of question he wanted answer for, but for now, he was just glad it was all over.

He had no idea of how wrong he was… since back in the tomb, or what reminded of it, there was still a small chamber that remained even after the collapse and that was being sustained by its only inhabitant, whose effort could be compared only to the one of the mythological Atlas.

"That… green BITHC!" She cursed out loud.

She was foreseeing hours, maybe even days of struggle to get out from where she was trapped, but, for once, it seemed like she had previously taken the right decision that would eventually bring her favorable outcomes. The dark cloud that was appearing in front of her was the proof of that, just like the figure that was appearing from it.

"Oh, my…" A male voice said, with a mix of arrogance and politeness that the cheerleader couldn't help but to hate "You got yourself in some… how should I put this? …'_tight_ situation', my dear Stacy"

Oh, she would _so_ smack him if she just didn't have her hands busy holding the roof!

"Shut the hell up…" She said, then paused herself at the notion of her words of choice "Or better, shut the heaven up and tell me, who the hell were those girls?!"

It did surprise him a bit that she would rather ask that first instead of demanding to be gotten out of there right away. "What girls?"

"Don't play dump! It was _you_ for whom they were looking for!"

He remained silent for a moment. Although Stacy couldn't see more than his eyes, she did notice he was thinking of something. But damn the wait! Her arms and shoulders were killing her!!

"I see… those two are indeed persistent" He finally said, and then… it seemed like he grinned.

"So you do know them!"

"Yeah… but never mind. They won't be able to do much, anyway"

"They took a Candelabra with them, you idiot!!"

"And because of that, they have doomed themselves to be chased by the Majins like Daisoujou. You won't even have to bother with them. Just let Hell's Angel take care of them and later you'll be able to get a hold on two Candelabras by defeating him."

Nice plan, yeah, but being such a smartass only made his guy more detestable for the cheerleader. Just how long did he plan to keep her there? No way she was going to _ask_ for it!

"Let's go now. Cobalt is waiting"

'_About time!'_ She thought as the shadow covering him started to surround her too.

X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X

In another corner of the world, one airship flew over the pacific sea headed towards the land of one of the world's most ancient cultures. Jen had never been in Japan before, but she wasn't too worried about the language. Of course, watching Anime, even as much as her, doesn't really gives one much more than a simple introduction to Japanese, but from what Ron Stoppable had told her, many people at the Yamanouchi could speak English.

Getting out of the ship's storage cabin, where Dave and she had managed to build some pseudo-beds to sleep, she walked towards the ship's pilot, a violet skinned man of nearly thirty years.

"Sleep well?" Said man asked.

"Yeah" She replied, combing her hair with her own fingers at the lack of a hairbrush. "Thanks for the assistance, Mr. Mego"

Mego, like Jen, was a man working on the "Ranks of Justices", to put it in a better way then "Hero Business". He was part of a superheroes team known as "Team Go", from Go City. And following the trademark of their names, all the members' aliases, like "Mego", ended with Go. The team had been formed more than ten years ago (which meant a lot more of experience of the field than what Jen had), when four siblings (three brothers and a sister) were put in contact with a rainbow-colored comet that fell from the sky. This comet granted them multiple superpowers and enhanced abilities, besides some notable physical changes. Mego's skin's and hair's color, both purple, were a good example of that.

"Whenever you need help, you know _just_ who to call" He said, with notable air of arrogance, but that quickly disappeared during his next words. "Besides, in the end, it's all for Miss Possible, right?"

"…right" She replied, although she couldn't be sure if it was _for_ her. It felt more like _thank_ to her.

"Then it's the least I can do after all that happened. It might have not had a good ending, but still…"

"I am… sorry about your sister, Mego"

"Yeah… but let's let the past be past"

This was the first time Jen ever met Mego, or any actual member of Team Go. But even so, something could tell her that this man had pretty much grow up a lot lately. Probably because of what happened to his sister.

Anyway, better not to get melancholic now. She had a job to do, after all.

"We should be arriving in about half an hour" Mego informed "You should be waking up your boyfriend"

"He's not my boyfriend" She said, but went back to wake him up.

Entering the diminutive storage cabin, which surprisingly proved to be a nice place to rest, she found Dave still sleeping under the cover. She grabbed him by the shoulder and shook him a bit.

"Wake up, lazy head. We're about to arrive"

"Just five more minutes, mommy"

She didn't know whenever he was consciously kidding or unconsciously saying nonsense, but she didn't care. "Five more minutes, my ass, sonny. You're getting up… NOW!" And with that, she pulled the covers away from him.

And from outside the cabin, Mego could clearly hear a high-pitched girly scream that pierced even his ears, and just seconds later Jen came out of the cabin with her face redder than even Kim Possible's hair.

"Do you HAVE to scream like that!?" Dave asked her from inside. Obviously he wouldn't be able to sleep any longer after such awakening.

"Since when do you sleep naked!?" Jen retorted.

"Since always!!"

"You never told me about that!"

"We never got to sleep together before!"

"And couldn't you warn me about that!?"

"Are you kidding!? You would have freaked out and most likely forbid me to get undressed!"

"Of course!"

"See!?"

Eventually, the blonde boy came out of the cabin fully dressed but his hair made a mess. He didn't seem to care, though. His mind was trying to remember something else…

"Again? Why did ask Ron if he wanted to come with us?"

"There wasn't time. The airship was already on its way for us"

"Too bad"

"Yeah, I know… but still, we've been asking for his help too many times the last two months. We got to stand for ourselves too"

Dave nodded. She was right. They should take care of their business themselves, specially when it was their case, like the villainess they were after right now. Not to mention that Ron also had his own business to deal with. Even though Kim had practically retired, Team Possible was still running on business, even though it was only Ron, Rufus and Wade now. They tried to stay away from big troubles that Ron might not be able to handle without Kim, but they were helping, indeed. Not leaving all the work to just them was undoubtedly a big help. Besides, Ron had actually accomplished some good works too, like managing to send Dr. Drakken back to prison once again when he escaped, or his latest stitch with Monkey Fist.

"Are you parachuting, like last time?" Dave asked, returning to the present case.

"Yeah" Jen said, "Mego will pick us up later"

"You guys got my number" He added "But say… are you sure you won't be needing any help?"

"Thanks for the offering, but Cobalt is my case, my rival"

"Well… fine then."

"As long as you don't fall for her just like Kim did for Shego."

She stamped his foot again! "Dave!"

"AUCH! Hey, I was just kidding!"

She grabbed him by his messy hear, dragging his ear close to her so only he could hear her "Yeah, in front of Shego's brother, you idiot!"

At the mention of that, Dave understood his tactless mistake and instantly slapped himself, following by giving a sincere apology to the purple hero.

"C'mon, kid, don't sweat it" He replied "Like I said, let the past in the past. Words from a veteran hero, remember them"

She had heard about Mego's egocentric attitude before, but still… she felt like he was right. Actually, she _knew_ he was right. She had been fighting crime and other things for just a few years, and regardless of how much she wanted, she couldn't always come back home victorious. Sometimes there were victims, and then there were tears, and they just hadn't save the day. It's hard to keep up with the same determination after that, but still… she learned the hard way that she should just forget about that as soon as possible, or it could get her during her next mission, affecting her performance. Being a hero for so long, Mego was ought to know that too.

"Thank you"

"You're welcome. Now grab your things, boys. We're almost there."

"Roger" Dave replied.

"Let's go" She said, equipping her parachute and getting close to the airship's trapdoor. "We got a date"

X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X- X

**Author's Notes:** So… liked Jen? Liked Stacy and the rest of the cast? Well, you can thank **Blackbird** for that, as he's the one who created almost every Non-canonical characters of this Fanfic. Jen Credible and her team, along with Stacy and Cobalt, who's appearing in the next chapter, are his creation and belong to him, just like KP's characters belong to Disney, and in case you may be wondering, canonical characters will have their role in this story soon enough.

And as you may probably suspect if you've read through all this, I'm writing this story in a fanfic's universe. To be more precise, this story follows after Blackbird's "Maternal Instinct" fanfic, after its alternative ending "Another Possibility", to be more specific. But the reason for which I didn't mention any of this at the beginning was because, as you may have noticed, I'm giving every character and element its deserved introduction, so there's really no need to read through **Blackbird**'s fanfic if you haven't, as everything you need to know will be explained in it's rightful way. Yeah, there might be a couple of this that may cause some wonders, such as why is Kim retired, but that's for the sake of keeping you readers interested, and will eventually be explained too. Of course, you can, and probably should, read **Blackbird**'s fanfic series, as they are some of the best work out there.

So, with that said, all that remains is the typical disclaimer, and that's that, save for the story, nothing of this belongs to me and I'm making no profit either. And just to clarify, with this said, I'm not going to be repeating the disclaimer in the following chapters. Point.

Finally, I admit that there might probably be many grammar errors in the story, for which I apology, but I must say that English isn't my first language, and so, well… I do my best.

Thanks to **Zearth** (Trackula) for his help, and 'til next chapter.

Next chapter: To know the truth sometimes just brings more questions, doesn't it?


	2. Having fun

**Jen Credible: Until The End**

Wind struck hard on their faces as they fell from a really, really high altitude. It was needed since the place they planned to land was of elevated altitude itself. And as the duo fell towards their destination, Jen was reviewing what she knew about this one place: Yamanouchi.

A secret ninja school hidden in the high mountains of Japan. Its purpose was not only to preserve traditions of Japan, but also to pass down the so-called mystical martial arts to the future generations. Young, chosen children were raised in this school to become the Guardians of Japan, and to be there when the world would really need them. Probably only the Gods they believed in could know what kind of calamity they were expecting, however, all that they were doing was to carry on with their purpose, just like Jen did with her life.

Ron Stoppable trained here for a short time, but he had told her that he doubted he had ever learned more in such a short time (except for the occasion in which he became temporally a genius, but that's couldn't really count as "learning"). Through this school, Ron had learned more about the mystical form of Martial Art he had been gifted with: Tai Sheng Pek Kwar. Also, while this story wasn't so clear for her, it seemed that this was the place from where Ron's adopted baby sister, Hana, had come from. Hana herself was a mystery, or at least her origins, but Ron had assured her that his sister had turned out to be a Super Ninja Baby. Jen didn't want to find out anymore about that.

Considering all that, Jen thought that there might probably be a lot more to learn from this school than what she already knew. She just hoped not to learn that they were of the hostile kind when it came to receiving unexpected visitors, especially not the hard way.

'_Well… here goes nothing.'_

Dave opened his parachute first and Jen followed soon after. It didn't take long to find the school, as it was the only construct in the mountainous area. They controlled the fall's direction to land there, and weren't surprised to see a crowd of people gather in anticipation of their arrival. Jen noticed they were all wearing white uniforms similar to dogis and karategis, but didn't seem to be taking any hostile position yet, not even when they finally landed.

They murmuring around them was to be expected, and so was to be unable to understand a word of it since it was all in foreign language. That was just until a tall handsome man moved out from the crowd and approached them. Jen just smiled and, in her best attempt to be friendly, greeted him:

"Gokigen'yō!"

The man, whose remarkable trait was his punkish-spiked hairstyle, didn't laugh one bit, but did smile.

"Welcome to the Yamanouchi" He said, placing his hands together in front of him and bowing a bit. Well, finally someone realized they weren't from around here. "My name is Hirokata. May I know your reasons for coming to this place uninvited?"

"It's a bit of a long story, but I assure you we have our reasons"

"Long story short, we're here to help" Dave explained.

"Help with what? The school is at ease right now"

"Yeah, I know" Jen continued "But believe me, we have reasons to believe someone might attempt to infiltrate this place sooner or later"

Hirokata didn't seem to take her seriously, but he remained polite. "Miss, I appreciate your concern, but I assure you the Yamanouchi, while having it's outside to the public, is nowadays, like you Americans would call it, a high-security fortress. Nobody could infiltrate without us knowing"

He certainly sounded convinced saying that, but when an explosion occurred at his back, coming right from the school's main building, the expression on his face certainly changed.

"Let me guess" Jen said sarcastically "That must be part of the school's training program, right?"

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Walking indefinitely could be a pain sometimes, not to mention extremely boring. In hopes to entertain himself a bit, Jack was checking the pages of the Occultism Magazine they found at the tomb. This was practically the only proof they got that they had found it, though he didn't really have many hopes that people would believe them considering how little related the evidence seemed to be. Although the last event made him believe they actually were associated, one way or the other.

He couldn't really understand a word of the pages since it was all in Japanese. He would have to ask Kei to translate this for him later, after they got some rest, of course.

The magazine wasn't proving to be of much interest, however.

He looked up ahead of him, at the two ladies they had met back at the tomb. As soon as the green-skinned woman got better, they both made it clear that they should go to the closest town, city or any kind of civilization around. So… they started walking back to the last town the masculine trio had been. Yet, so far, the girls didn't seem to be willing to answer any of their questions, or at least not with a proper response. They didn't even say their names yet. Yet however, they didn't seem to have any problem pressing their guide.

"How long 'til we get there? I'm drying!" The green girl complained.

"Still far away" Sheek replied, sweating a bit but probably not because of the heat.

"Isn't there a way to make this faster?" The Asian girl questioned.

"…I'm just a mouse"

Tired of walking, both ladies stopped for a moment and sighed, being this the sixth time they heard that from the little green mouse. Jack and Kei shared a laugh because of that, which didn't escape the girl's ears.

"Aren't you two sweating a lot too?" The tomboyish girl asked, looking half perplexed, half frustrated. She probably wondered how they could laugh about their dismay instead of sharing it.

"We've been under this sun for days, lady" Kei replied.

"Darn it…" The other girl cursed, "I told you to get that thing repaired before!"

"I know!" Her partner countered "I'll do it as soon as we get _some_where."

"What are you talking about?" Jack asked. Couldn't help it, he was too curious, maybe too much for his own good.

The Asian girl half-raised her left arm, but stopped midway. "Nothing"

However, Jack had already noticed what she was about to mean "The device on your wrist?" He asked. The four-seconds-lasting lack of reply, including the avoidance of eye contact, confirmed it. "What's wrong with it?"

"I wish I knew" She replied while checking said device, which looked like a… communicator? "It just stopped working a few days ago"

"Are you sure that the battery didn't just run out?" Jack asked.

The girl rolled her eyes "The battery is nuclear! This thing would take months to run out!"

"Or an exposition to highly electromagnetic fields" Kei commented out of the blue. Both girls stared at him in disbelief. "What? It is true."

And then they slapped their own faces. "Damn!"

Jack contained a laugh "So I guess it is the battery"

The tomboyish girl just nodded. "But we can recharge it, as soon as I got somewhere with electricity"

"There's a wind generator at town" Sheek said.

"That should do" The pale girl said.

"Yeah, we got to get there for that" Kei reminded them.

The green girl looked at the Japanese man almost as if she was about to kill him… but apparently decided against it and started walking again. The rest followed.

"So, uh… can we know your names?" Jack asked.

"We don't _have_ names" The pale woman replied aggressively.

Well… that didn't make things any easier. Jack cleared his voice and insisted. "So… any alias for which we could call you?"

"Pick whatever you want" The same girl replied.

"Mmm… can I call you Shego?"

At that, the green lady stopped dead in her track and quickly turned to face the archeologist. None of the men had seen such a perplexed expression on the woman's face before.

"What did you just say!?" She demanded to know.

"Eh… Shego"

"WHY?" She questioned before he could even try to explain.

And yeah, she was scaring him. "Well… because of this green-skinned woman known as Shego I happened to hear about. Just… I thought it would fit you, so…"

"You wouldn't BE Shego, would you?" Kei inquired.

"That's impossible" Jack replied "Shego died, about two months ago"

"…right" The pale woman said, looking at the sandy floor. Her partner put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Did you know her?" Kei asked, sounding concerned.

"Never met her" She replied, matter-of-fact tone… and then she stayed quite for some time, but finally looked up and replied "But… you may call me Shego"

Jack looked at Kei, who simply shrugged, and then back at the ladies "Okay"

"Now back to walking!" The Asian girl commanded.

And so they did.

"And how should we call you?" Kei asked to the still nameless woman.

"Like I know" She said, barely audible for anyone else.

"Pick up something" Her partner advised her "We may need some way to call each other"

Considering her pal's words, the tomboyish girl stopped for a moment to think about that. "Well… since you're Shego, I guess I'll be-"

"DON'T you dare!" The other girl jokingly threatened.

She gave her an awkward look. "…I was going to say Yori"

Yeah, quite awkward, "…yeah, I guess that suits you"

It wasn't enough to laugh, but it was for smiling. Then they went on walking, the men just followed.

"So… Shego and Yori, right?" Jack asked.

"Yeah" 'Shego' replied.

"Enough for you already?" 'Yori' questioned.

"What are YOUR names, anyway?" Shego asked crankily.

"I'm Jack, my friend here is Kei. And you can call your guide Sheek"

"I'm just a mouse," He reminded them.

"So, ladies…" Kei followed "Would you be so kinds to let me interview you for the magazine I work for?"

"Look" Yori pointed out "You're a half-question away from me giving you an 'if-I-tell-you-I'll-have-to-kill-you' kind of answer!"

"I'll shut up," Kei said, curiously cheerful.

"Can we at least know how you girls got here? I mean, you obviously didn't come walking since you're not used to this heat"

The tomboyish girl looked at her pale partner for a moment. Shego simply shrugged and Yori decided to reply. "In a helicopter"

"What happened to it?" Kei asked, had someone gave them a ride here? Or maybe…

"It got blown up," Shego said. Kei had guessed.

"I… think I'll leave it at that" Jack said, considering it his wisest decision.

Frustrated and feeling the sweat drop through her forehead, Shego sighed "Just HOW much more 'til we get there!?"

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Damn these ninjas! Damn this school! Just what the fuck had happened with the "Let's stay traditional" concept?! Seriously: Security cameras? Alarm laser!? Thermal sensors!? Just what kind of "traditional" school was the Yamanouchi supposed to be!?

She almost regretted not having listened to the only 'Ninja' she could more-or-less trust. She had barely made it through the whole security system and reached the room where the item she was seeking was located, but again she underestimated the safety measures of this place, and as soon as she removed it from its place, a weight sensor set up the alarm (they even had the red light glowing in the rooms and the digital voice screaming "Warning" all around!) and everything her mission had about stealth went straight to the trash bucket.

Of course, this might have made her task a whole deal harder, but then again, it also made it a lot more exciting. So bring the fun, bitches!

Ninjas weren't a type of adversaries she was used to, but she sure was open to different types of challenges, and this one seemed promising. Good thing she brought her "Lyon" (A customized H&K VP70 with triple shot function) with her, as she already knew she would need it, not just for shooting, as she had to do many times to repel those freaky flying starts, but also for using it to block her enemies' swords and scythes and then put them to sleep with a good punch or two.

Of course, it didn't take much time until she realized these small rooms and corridors just wouldn't do. She needed to air out, for goodness' sake! That's it: Screw them and throw the grenade.

Now THAT was quite a show, the floor and the roof started to fall apart as soon as the impact faded, leaving only deafening vibration in everyone's ears. She made her way out through the hole in the roof, reaching out for the tiled housetop. Of course, that didn't stop a handful of persistent warriors from keeping up with her, and one of them even managed to trap her arm in a chain. Nevertheless, she stood strong and not only didn't allow him to pull her off her ground, but did said thing to him, kicking his breath out of him with a good placed thrust on his stomach, a female ninja came right after him, only to get her face slapped with the Lyon's butt, her arm held tightly and her body climbed by the quick thief, who in less than a second was standing on one leg over her shoulder and before she could do anything, the blue-dressed woman used her free leg to kick her and slam her against the tiles. A third ninja was already quite close to them, but a fast shot on his shoulder made the distance between them a lot larger.

From her high position, she could contemplate the large field where these guys used to train, and she was already seeing the immense amount of angry ninjas that were following her like cats after a mouse. Truth to be told… she _liked_ playing the mouse.

She looked around, searching for the right way to run away, but it turned out that there was one last warrior standing on her way.

"On my honor, I will defeat you!" The girl with black hair at shoulder length said, holding two battle fans in her hands as she stood in one leg, the other one raised defensively in front of her. She looked mature (and attractive), but she probably wasn't even twenty.

"Stay out my way, kid" She warned, "You'll live longer"

"It'll be my honor to die if that prevents the Lotus Blade from falling into your hands"

Lotus Blade? Oh, right! That's how the katana she was supposed to steal was called, the very same one that now hung from her back.

"If that's what you wish…" and then she pulled Lyon's trigger, firing three consequent bullets toward the girl.

But much to the thief's surprise, the bullets where deflected by the girl's fans, who then charged forward and attacked the older woman, who barely avoided the sharp end of the fan that managed to cut some of her white-blue hairs. So, the kid had some skill, uh?

"Congratulations!" She said, grabbing the ninja's wrist and leaving her defenseless long enough to place the Lyon's canon against her forehead "You've won a one-way ticket straight to heaven!"

But before she could pull the trigger, someone else grabbed _her_ wrist and moved the gun right on time so that the fired bullets would hit nothing but air. The thief looked up, furiously anxious to see who had managed to get so close to her without her noticing, but her expression quickly changed when she realized who it was: Her favourite cat when playing mouse.

"Jenny…" She said with a mix of calmness and contained annoyance.

"Miss me, Cobalt?"

"Never so much"

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The group in the dessert was going on and on and the girls were tired of sand, sand and sand and more sand! And tired was saying just the least!

"The town should be visible already" Kei told them "That's it, if we weren't in the dessert. The heat just reduces everyone's range of vision"

But upon hearing that, the pale woman raised her right hand and went for her eye-patch, pressing something on the side of it.

The guys had already noticed that the eye-patch wasn't a typical one, but when they saw a red light shining in the corner of it, making them notice the diminutive light bulb placed on it. The girl had also closed her left eye for some reason, but when they stood in front of her, she reopened it and looked at them.

"Do you mind?" She asked threateningly.

Kei and Jack moved aside as Shego closed her visible eye and, apparently, looked with the eye-patch's… camera?

"Is that a biotechnological eye or _what_?" Kei asked Yori almost in a whisper.

"It's just an accessory" The tomboyish girl deadpanned "She does have her eye beneath it. That thing works as binoculars, night and thermal vision, and analysis of the field"

"Found it" Shego said, pointing with her free hand toward one point in particular "The town is over there, around six kilometers from here"

"Well, that's what I call informative!" Jack expressed. Sheek looked a bit down because of the comment.

The pale woman pressed something on the side of the eye-patch again, apparently shutting it down. "Now let's-" She paused. She had even took a step forward but didn't move the other foot, stopping dead in her track.

"What's wrong?" Kei asked, but the pale woman silenced him.

Yori seemed to notice it too… and looked behind at the path they came from.

"Is that…?" Jack asked. They were starting to notice it too.

"…a sound" Kei finished.

It sounded like a… a roar, a roar coming from the distance, far away…

"**I feel it"**

They all nearly jumped when they "heard" it, that voice in their head that, while not being the same one, it sounded in the same way.

The noise was becoming louder.

"**I can feel it!"**

Now the roar was clear enough to know from where it came from: The path they had walked through all day. They all stared behind, to the source of the… mechanical roar they could all feel, through the air and through the shaking sand. Shego activated her eye-patch again… searching for their enemy through the foggy heat and the sandscape.

"**I feel the power… a candelabrum is nearby****!"**

It didn't take her long to find it… coming at them at full speed on top of an old Harley-like motorbike with its wheels covered in hellish flames. Its rider, who was dressed in what she could call a nearly perfect "gay biker" style, except because it actually wore a shirt and a helmet, reminded her of the fiend the cheerleader had faced, Daisoujou, because of one important trait it common: Beneath its clothes, the biker was nothing but a skeleton, even thought the only visible part of said trait was it's face… which she could see clearly…

**"It's **_**you**_**, isn't it!?"**

…staring back at her, even through the ten kilometers distance.

"…shit!"

"It found us, didn't it?" Jack just had to ask.

"RUN!"

Nobody put doubt on the pale girl's words. They all turned around and began to run as fast as their legs would let them, heading toward the town. They didn't think they would be safe there, but they did feel that their life depended on it.

Shego and Yori just couldn't believe it. They knew that _he_ was after the candelabras like the one the cheerleader had and that priest had dropped, but they didn't expect that getting a hold on one would drive others creatures to go after them besides the one they were after. Now they had this fiend, this Hell's Angel, after them and they just didn't feel like they could handle it. They had seen how powerful Daisoujou was, and while they didn't consider such creatures invincible, they knew better than to try their luck. They also knew they hadn't actually defeated the immeasurably powerful cheerleader. They just were smart enough to make her fall into their trap and leave her to rot under the ruins and the sand. But now they had this creature chasing them… what where they supposed to do?

**"Hand over the candelabrum!"**

They weren't going to make it. They had already discovered just how fast they could be, something you discover only when you're running for your life, but they knew that even though they had cleared half of the distance in record time, the Hell's Angel was going to reach them before they could make it. That could just prove its speed, a speed they definitely would not be able to match. Just how could they defeat him anyway?

They would have to take their chances.

"Yori!" Shego called. The Asian girl instantly responded to the name by looking at her partner. "Recharge the battery and ask for help!"

"Help!?" Yori questioned, "You can't mean…" Yes, she did and they both knew it "Are you crazy!?"

"It's the only way!" The pale girl replied and they knew she was right.

The tomboyish woman pressed her teeth hard just because of what the idea involved: It would mean to leave Shego behind to fight the biker, to leave her alone with a foe that was beyond their capability. Even if it was only for distraction… it was just too dangerous!

"You better survive this! I don't want to lose you too!"

"You won't" She said… and then she jumped, turning back and beginning to slow down once her feet touched the ground again, eventually stopping her while the rest of the group went on and ahead to the town.

"**Ha-ha-ha-ha!"**

It was coming for her and she would face it. At that speed, and as long as it had its bike, it would be impossible to fight him directly. She would have to use her power.

"**C'MON! Be a good girl… and I'll take you to a world without limits!!"**

"…Bring it!"

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As if being back indoors just wasn't frustrating enough….

"Look, I know you're angry because you're cornered and all-" Jen started.

"And that's 'cause we know you hate feeling trapped" Dave added.

"Right, right" Jen followed "But don't you think you're taking this too far!? I mean, taking hostages is just not you!"

"Have you looked behind you!?" Cobalt retorted.

Jen did… and only then she noticed the huge horde of weapon-holding ninjas that stood in position right behind her, ready to cut the blue thief into hundreds of tiny pieces at their fist chance, which, of course, wouldn't be possible unless they managed to free the school's leader, Master Sensei, from Cobalt, who had her gun right behind the old teacher's head.

"C'mon, baby! Let gramps go!" Dave pleaded, not too pitiful but not too convincing either.

"Okay, look" Jen began, knowing that the discussion wasn't going anywhere like this, so… "Let's make a deal"

"I'm listening" Cobalt said.

"We'll solve this between you and me" She offered "Ninjas and Senseis… we leave them aside, okay?"

"And why should I trust such a deal?" The thief questioned.

"When have I lied to you!? You _know_ you can trust me!"

"Yeah, I trust _you_, but I don't trust those BEHIND you!"

Jen looked back once more, admitting to herself that the older woman had a point. But how could she convince the Ninjas to stand back and let her handle the situation?

"It will be our honor to agree with you, Miss," Sensei spoke with a calm voice, nearly freaking out the thief who had subconsciously reasoned that the old geezer was either mute or way too shocked to speak.

"What was that?"

"For no battle should demand unfair methods, and for your honor's radiance, we shall leave the outcome of this confrontation and the fate of the Lotus Blade in the hands of you and your rival, Cobalt-san"

"Watch your mouth, gramps!" The blue woman retorted, looking straight at what little was visible of Sensei's eyes "I don't know where you got the idea, but Honor simply ain't existing in my dictionary"

"But it is does exist… in your relationship with Miss Credible-san"

Silent filled the room for an awkward moment, and before they had noticed, all the ninjas had lowered their weapons, putting them on sheath or respective places, and they all proceeded to stand formally by the sides of the big room.

"Mh! As lame as they come."

And with that said, Cobalt let Sensei go with a kick on the butt. Dave ran quickly towards the old man to help him stand up and then headed with him close to Hirokata and Yori, the ninja who had managed to delay Cobalt long enough for Jen to reach at her.

"Now it's just you and me, Cobalt" Jen proclaimed, adopting her fighting stance.

"And you're all mine, Jenny"

Not wasting another second, Jen ran towards her one personal rival, who awaited her in anything but a combat position, obviously in mockery. Yet, that didn't stop Cobalt from grabbing Jen's punch right on time, make her lose her balance and, as if that wasn't enough, have her hanging from her arm, while holding both of her wrists against the young hero's back, and planting a strong, deep and immeasurably passionate _**kiss**_ right-on-her-**LIPS**!!

"MH!!"

All the eyes around the room went wide open, except for those of the shy girl who covered her face from such a sight. Some of the men, on the other hand, were bleeding, but not because of any injure. Dave himself could barely believe his own eyes as he contemplated the hottest moment in all of his life as a hero's sidekick.

"I… I can see her tongue" Hirokata muttered…

"Yeah…" Dave said "Now THAT's what I call honor!!"

Jen was struggling and kicking around trying to break free of the older woman's… "Attack", but either she wasn't concentrating well enough (not like she could), or Cobalt had been training a lot since the last time they met. One way or the other, the thief didn't stop tasting the brunette's mouth until she really needed to breath, and that's when Jen ran away as fast as possible from the villain who had gained a new sort of reputation in her mind, all while splitting around every last drop of saliva from her mouth, her hands assisting the process as if she were trying to remove some dirt from her tongue.

"The bathroom is that way!" Yori told her, pointing at a corridor on the right. Jen just headed toward said direction while muttering "Arigato" between splits.

"Cobalt: One, Jen: Zero!!" The blue thief exclaimed cheerfully. Dave just stared at her in disbelief, which Cobalt did notice. "Yeah: All the way down her throat!"

"I _so_ wish I had a camera right now…" The young sidekick said to himself.

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"I need electricity!!" Yori screamed, right after opening the town's windmill's gate and in an attempt to catch her breath.

Unfortunately the only reply she got was some babbling-like talking from a man who simply didn't know her language. Not so unfortunately, Sheek caught up with her shortly after that to talk to the Egyptian man in tongue he could make sense of. She was eventually taken into a room where she could connect the device on her wrist into some machinery. Said item instantly came to life, meaning that, indeed, the guys had been right.

'_This is crazy'_ She told herself as she operated her communicator _'To contact him… is simply crazy!'_

She was surprised when he appeared in the device's screen, but… it was _him_.

"What the-?" The Afro-American boy asked.

"Wade! I need your help!"

"Who are you!?" The obese boy asked her. "How did you contact me!?"

"There's no time for explaining, Wade! I need you to help me, quickly! A whole town is in danger here!!"

Yori saw him typing at almost inhuman speed for a moment, and then his eyes went wide open. "At... Egypt!?"

He had tracked her down already!? Damn, he was young but he was damn good! "YES! At hot-as-hell Egypt!"

"What do you need my help for?" He questioned while he went on typing. It was almost scary to see him doing that with such masterfulness.

Better make the long story short: "There's a demon following us and it will kill the whole town if we don't stop it, but I doubt we'll be able to!"

She wasn't sure if he heard her since he just kept typing as fast as that biker's motorcycle, but when his eye opened wide, she knew she wasn't going to like what was following:

"Watch out!! It's coming to get you!"

_Worse_ than what she expected "What!?"

She barely had time to draw the sword from her back to strike against the burning wheels of the Hell's Angel vehicle; right after it threw down the windmill's east wall. It felt akin to clashing a chainsaw against another chainsaw. Yori's arm's muscles could easily be seen at the peak of their limit through her tight suit, but after just a couple of seconds she fell to the floor landing on her back, though having managed to avoid the Majin's attack, who just kept racing in the same direction, though now in the town.

"Hey, are you okay!?" She heard Wade asking.

"Yeah… I'm fine" She said, raising the communicator again to make visual contact with the genius kid.

"What was that?!" He asked as he saw her beginning to stand up with a little green mouse helping her as it much could.

"Look, I'm really not sure of that, and the last thing I got is time to explain it" She told him, exiting the windmill to see where the Hell's Angel had gone. Apparently, he had already crossed town and was… making a long turn to get back. "Wade, can you contact Global Justice? We're going need some heavy artillery."

"On it! Just give me a minute!"

That sounded like it was going to be the longest minute of her life.

"HEY!"

Hearing that, Yori turned around to see Shego catching up with her.

"Wade listened to me" She told her as soon as they were close enough to talk. "I requested GJ's help"

"That… may be good" The pale woman replied, trying to retrieve her breath.

"Or not" The Asian girl reassessed "But until they arrive…"

"I'll take care of it" Shego said, starting to run again toward the racing skeleton.

"Oh, no! I'm not letting you do this alone!!"

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Two mouthwashes and three teeth brushing later, a still blushing and angry Jen returned to the dojo-like gym where everyone, including Cobalt, stood just as they were when she left them, and she was more than eager to retake the fight.

"Now you're gonna see you… you-!" She suddenly started running, delivering a kick as she finished her sentence. "YOU DYKE!!"

But it wasn't like anyone expected that the thief wouldn't block the kick. "You kiss your mommy with that mouth?"

"My mother died long ago!" Jen retorted. Still with her right leg blocked by Cobalt's arm, but then jumping and giving another kick with her free leg, breaking the encounter with that.

"Yeah" The cerulean-haired woman agreed as she blocked Jen's punch "But you kiss _me_ with that mouth!?"

"I didn't kiss YOU!" She exclaimed, blocking with her free arm the strike that Cobalt tried to give her, identical to her own. "You kissed ME!!"

Her word's power could only be compared to the headbutt she gave the older woman, who in return kicked the teen away from her. Jen rolled on the ground but quickly stoop up again.

"Yeah, about that…" Cobalt started, touching her lips softly "Was that strawberry sundae I tasted?"

"So I like to have ice-cream for breakfast and that was the only meal I had today. Got a problem with that?"

"So you have your own weird quirks too."

Just where was her mind wandering right now? Whatever… "Bite me!"

"Don't tempt me."

One more second of uncomfortable silence… and Jen charged forward once again, giving first a low roundhouse kick which Cobalt avoided making a quick jump but left her open for the following straight kick on her stomach, which sent her to crash against the wall.

"Why didn't you escape, anyway?" Jen asked, curious about why she hadn't escaped while she was in the bathroom "It wasn't because of the ninjas, was it?"

Regaining her composure, Cobalt smiled at Jen. "What if I tell you I want another kiss?"

Jen knew she was only avoiding the question, but with that, she had told her that she wasn't planning on giving anything out. "Really? Well, you can kiss my ass!"

"That's something I'd rather kick"

"And I'd like to see you try"

An agreement, communicated through their eyes, was enough to lead both of them against each other again, clashing their right fists, which didn't stop either one's pace, just gave them one another's position. They both looked back at each other, smiling confidently.

"Seems like we're gonna have some fun, uh, Jenny?"

"We sure are…"

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The Hell's Angel passed at full speed, raising the sand and leaving a trail of flames behind itself. Shego stepped sideways to avoid him and raised her arm, throwing her power at her enemy. Regrettably, it didn't reach. That damn motorbike was just too damn fast.

She had to cover Yori for now, while the girl kept the conversation with Wade and Global Justice.

"Can you describe the enemy you're fighting?" Dr. Director, head of the worldwide organization of law and order and who appeared through half of communicator's screen, asked the tomboyish fighter.

"Fast!" Yori exclaimed exasperatedly. The damn one-eyed woman was just taking it too calmly considering their current situation "Powerful and fast!!"

She looked up at her partner for a moment. Apparently, she was managing to keep the biker at a proper distance for enough time shooting her power around.

"And what do you propose?" The woman asked. Wade, who was also in this conversation, remained silent for the moment, except for the constant sound of his typing.

"Simply something that can be as fast and powerful as him. How about missiles?" She proposed. "Your air force has jets packed with laser guidance missiles, right?"

Dr. Director raised her good eye's eyebrow. This woman was more and more suspicious by each second. "Yes, we have. But you'd need a laser to paint the target"

"She got it" Wade suddenly stated. "That device she is using to communicate with us has that function"

Yori bit her lower lip and shook her head just so that the young nerd could see it, not to neglect it. It was just a reaction caused by how amazed she was of his skills.

"I got to admit, that device is amazing!" The computer expert exclaimed "Far better than the Kimmunicator I've built. Who made that thing?" He asked enthusiastically.

"You can talk about that later" Dr. Director commanded, focusing then in Yori "Miss, we'll be sending our fastest jet aircraft toward Egypt following Mr. Load's coordinates. Think you'll be able to handle a little less than thirty minutes?"

"Like I have a choice!"

"YORI!!"

The Asian girl barely managed to look up in time to see the Hell's Angel heading toward her at full speed until something bumped her to the ground. Thankfully, it wasn't the fiend, but an actual living person.

"Kei!"

The Japanese man stood up, catching sight of the biker and then taking the AK-47 Kalashnikov hanging from his back. He shot at the Majin, but alas, wasn't able to land a single shoot because of the distance and the biker's speed. He and the girls remained still for a moment, and eventually the Hell's Angel was heading toward them again, as they expected. What they didn't expect was for it to swing against the sand, raising not only a big cloud of sand but also powering up the flames of the wheels, practically creating a giant wave of fire. The three combatants threw themselves backwards and to the sand to avoid the attack, and Kei lost his weapon in the process. But when he tried to go for it, he saw it moving on its own, out of his reach and toward the green girl's hand.

"We appreciate your help" Yori told him "But please, leave this to us"

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"Just how long have they been fighting!?" Yori asked, amazed by the hero's and villain's stamina. There hadn't been any place where they hadn't fought already, and now it was in the middle of the training field.

"Over thirty minutes" Dave told her. "And the sun is setting" He added, looking at the golden half of the sky.

"Seems like things are getting spicier" Hirokata commented, "They've already drawn their weapons"

Running like a professional athlete in a short race, Jen approached Cobalt at full speed before she could even raise her gun again and almost managed to leave a permanent scar in the older woman's face. Angry at that, Cobalt gave Jen her best kick right on the teen's chin, pointing her gun at her and shooting three bullets as soon as she could. Yet, her soonest wasn't good enough, as it gave her opponent enough time to swing her axe to deflect the bullets. Yeah, the goody Jenny had already learned to deal with this if she had enough distance between them, and it seemed like "enough" was less and less after each battle. But daring as she was, she wanted to see her dealing with _minimal_ range.

No longer had Jen put her feet on the ground, she already had Cobalt in front of her, gun already raised. Her axe barely managed to get between her and the bullet since it was already close, but unable to do it properly. The shoot sent the weapon flying out of her hand and almost made her lose her balance, if she wasn't because she used that impulse to raise a kick and flip backward, her feet managing to leave Cobalt disarmed too, or so she thought.

More annoyed than before, Cobalt went for the Lotus Blade's grip and tried a horizontal cut on the youngster, only to get the sword trapped between the _darn good_ hero's skilful hands, and as if that wasn't enough, Jen pulled the weapon toward her, making Cobalt lose her equilibrium as the teen laid down on her back, her feet intercepting her enemy's stomach just to immediately kick her off and sent her flying around the school's train field and toward a tree, which Cobalt wasn't really willing to crash into, so she made sure to put _some_ use to that sword and cut the damn tree down.

"They cut down the kigo tree!!" Hirokata exclaimed, taking his hands to his hair.

"…"Kigo"? " Dave couldn't help to ask, just like he couldn't help raising an eyebrow.

"And we were just finishing the repairs of everything after the attack of Monkey Fist and The Yono…" Yori lamented.

Jen walked without haste toward the fallen tree, finding Cobalt just sitting calmly over it. The sword was back on its scabbard, and the woman stood as though nothing had happened.

"My, you sure are quite energetic today, Jen" Cobalt said. Her using her rival's name like that expressed some respect "I got to admit: I haven't had this much fun in a very long time"

Jen sighed… and went to pick up her axe "So I'm not the only one who got stronger, _RIGHT!?_"

Cobalt jumped just right on time to avoid the flying axe that came with the exclamation… and flew forward to encounter Jen in a clash of kicks that didn't manage to injure either of them. She landed easily and calmly on the ground, and turned around to see Jen standing on what reminded still standing of the tree's log, axe back in hand.

"Seems like it'll be ME who'll have to kiss YOU this time!!"

"Goodbye kiss?" Cobalt mocked, kicking her gun from the ground to raise it up to her hand.

"Goodnight kiss!"

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Faster, FASTER, **FASTER**!!

"**Alright, let's go!"**

Faster they ran, on wheels or feet, faster they approached, one to another. But she knew: Speed wouldn't decide this battle's outcome. Timing would!

"**Think you can stop me?"**

Just when the Majin tried to raise its vehicle to welcome its opponent with the flaming wheels, the bullets that couldn't do much to his being managed to break his move and leave him open to meet the pale woman's feet kicking right on his chest and separating him from his loyal transport. No sooner it tried to get up, the girl stepped on its shoulder, pointing the firearm at its skull.

Inside of her mind, he could only hear its laugh.

"**...You're the very first one to keep up with me."**

"No kidding" She replied.

Yet, he only laughed more, even moving its jawbone to mimic the 'sound'. Shego raised her feet for a moment only to step back strongly to shut it up. She had questions…

"Why do you want the candelabrum?" She asked. By knowing the reason this creature wanted such an item, she might finally find out what _he_ was after. "What do you really want!?"

"**The same as you!"**

The replied managed to scare her a bit. She was about to ask for clarifications, but it seemed like the Majin read her mind.

"**If you posses a candelabrum then, like me, you've got to be after supreme power!"**

"Supreme… power!?"

"**Alas… I shall never allow it!"**

"SHEGO!!"

The green lady looked aside to see Yori calling out for her… and the demon's motorbike heading toward her by itself! Such unpredictable attack was more than what she could have expected… but fortunately, so was Kei playing the rescuer's role once again, knocking himself and Shego on the ground to avoid being ran over.

"Thank you" She said as she stood up, and he noticed her blushing.

"Good thing I didn't leave, uh?"

Yori ran past them, her sword in hand, in an attempt to prevent the rider to get on the motorbike, yet… it managed to avoid her raising slash and get away, and then Kei saw something beyond his imagination: The katana… growing ten times its size in less than a second and being wielded as a whip instead of a sword. The blade even bent during the next move that almost managed to strike the Hell's Angel, but raised nothing but sand. The weapon returned to its original shape shortly after that…

…and shortly before they all could hear another roaring sound, this one coming from the sky and announcing the arrival of a new ally.

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At Yamanouchi, the battle kept going through pain and sweat, yet, surprisingly, with almost no spilled blood. The fighting bodies felt a lot tenser, the muscles aching at every made effort, their breaths escaping their mouths and their eyes struggling to keep focused. But as tired as they were, drops falling from their arms and forehead, they both knew this was when they truly felt _alive_.

But as night fell and the sky became dark, like daylight, their fight came to an end.

It wasn't intense, but a notorious vibration could be felt coming from beneath the whole field. Almost like an earthquake…

"Darn it!" Cobalt cursed, clearly annoyed "Just when things were _starting_ to be fun…"

Without wasting time, the blue thief drew the Lotus Blade, staring carefully at the floor.

"What are you doing?" Jen immediately asked.

"Just following instructions" The older woman replied "Sorry, Jenny. But I'm afraid our fight has come to an end…"

"What?!"

Cobalt's only answer was to stab the sword within the ground with all of her might… causing the trembling to become an uncontainable earthquake, cracks appearing across the earth, almost as if the whole mountain was about to collapse. Jen managed to make out a weird picture: Cobalt elevating with a stone emerging beneath her feet and taking her higher and higher, while said stone became wider and, apparently, more than just a stone.

Snapping out of her impression, the heroic teen jumped backwards, following through with a series of flips in order to get away from whatever was emerging from below the school's ground. Not just a stone, she quickly learned, but a construction that stood far taller than what she expected, eventually stopping when fully revealed under the night's darkness as a temple with the shape of a simian's face with a sort-of crown that was larger than the face. Last time she checked, Cobalt was standing on top of the construction, but now she was nowhere to be found.

"It can't be!" Yori exclaimed, making Jen notice her, along with Dave and Hirokata, standing behind her.

"What? What can't be?" Dave inquired.

"The… the Dark Temple of The Yono!"

Jen just blinked at Hirokata's terrified statement, turning back to face said temple again. "Now, just what do we have here?"

Without hesitating, the brunette ran forward to the temple entrance, quickly followed by Dave who just had a very bad feeling like to let her go all by herself. Upon entering through the big mouth-like arcade, they found themselves in a chamber with no person on it, but one particular… thing.

"What's a statue doing in a place like this?" Dave wondered out loud, approaching toward said structure "Man, it sure looks ugly"

"Wait a minute!" Jen exclaimed as soon as she got a better look at the statue, which seemed to be of a man with some monkey-like features. But she was sure she had seen this face before, and it didn't take her much to remember where: A list of villain. She even managed to remember his name: "Monty Fiske!?"

"What!?" Dave suddenly exclaimed, "You mean… this is the guy Ron faced some weeks ago? The same Monkey Fist?!"

Both of them still recalled the case. When, a couple of weeks ago, Jen asked Ron to replace Dave since her sidekick had been hospitalized because of having had his left arm injured during the previous mission. Ron did a fairly good job assisting Jen against their new challenges, a duo known as Team Probable. And when the issue was done and the case closed, they invited Ron for a groupie dinner at Jen's office, where they shared some tales. That was when Ron told them about he and his baby sister having faced their greatest challenge against Monkey Fist and some even darker monkey. Ron hadn't given much detail, especially not regarding his archrival's ultimate fate. Now she could see why…

But that wasn't their business…

"Cobalt!" Jen called, forgetting the petrified villain and looking around "Show yourself!"

"Already missing me, Jenny?"

Much to the duo's frustration, it merely required them to turn back to see Cobalt resting against the entrance.

"What's this all about!?" Jen demanded to know.

"Beats me" Cobalt replied while shrugging and holding both hands at her sides and shoulder's height, but then pointing to somewhere behind Jen "You should ask him"

Turning around once more, Jen came to know a new member of this act, that is, as much as she could see of him considering the guy was dressed as a ninja, including the mask that wouldn't show anything but a pair of dark brown eyes. Curiously, the guy held a book in his arm.

"And you are…?" Jen asked, facing the newcomer,

"He doesn't have a name, as far as I'm aware" Cobalt replied for him "He just goes by the Tarot Cards"

"The Tarot Cards?" Dave repeated.

"That is correct" The supposedly nameless man answered, walking a couple of step toward the sandy-blond sidekick "The Arcana is the means by which all is revealed... and only through the cards can the final truth be obtained. Including for you, Magician."

Confused, Dave looked to both sides, just to make sure of what he feared. Pointing at himself, he looked back at the nameless man "Magician? You're talking to-? WHOA!!"

But the sudden appearance of a card in front of him interrupted his question. The card, which was only showing its backside to the teenager, floated in front of him for a moment until it suddenly turned around, revealing itself as the card of The Magician. Carefully, Dave raised his hand and grabbed the card that just then stopped defying gravity.

"What does this mean?"

"He just goes around calling people by what's supposedly is 'their' cards" Cobalt explained. She hadn't moved so far. "As far as he's aware, I'm The Devil," She added, showing a card similar to Dave's, though with the Arcana she mentioned.

"Okay, this is just way too creepy" Jen retorted, facing the 'tarot gambler' once again. "So… what is your Arcana?"

Even through his mask, she managed to notice him smirking before facing her and replying. "I'm the one that demands Order from Chaos itself," He proclaimed, showing his card "The Emperor"

"So much for an introduction…" A new voice said.

"Who's there!?" Jen asked as she and Dave started looking around. Weren't they just two?! And why did that voice sounded… _familiar_?

"I got to admit… you were the last person I expected to encounter, Jennifer"

Following the source of that voice, the young hero managed to notice someone standing at the chamber's only internal doorway. The sight of that feminine figure covered by the shadows made her feel a nostalgic (_annoyingly_ nostalgic) at the sound of the newcomer's voice. And what was with that cheerleading unif-… ?!

'_No… it can't be!'_

"As stubborn as always, aren't you?" The blonde cheerleader said, stepping out of the doorway and showing herself to her old classmate.

"Stacy!?" Jen exclaimed in disbelief "Stacy Burke!?"

"You know her?" Both Dave and Cobalt asked at the same time, causing them to stare at each other for a moment.

"Know her!?" Jen repeated, "We were classmate, for talking out loud!"

A sad laugh escaped Stacy's lips "Good old times"

"Why didn't you tell me you knew such a sexy girl?" The sidekick cheerfully asked while checking out the cheerleader from toe to head.

"And as poorly accompanied as always, it seems" The blonde added.

"Hey! I resent that!"

"What are you doing here, anyway!?" Jen questioned "What are you doing with… with these _villains_?!"

"Can't you guess?" Stacy asked "I'm their leader, Jen"

"You what!?" The hero reported, as Cobalt passed right beside her "Stop joking around!"

"This is no joke, Jenny" Cobalt said, standing right beside the cheerleader "I must admit I had no idea you and Stacy were acquainted already, but I also got to tell you that I doubt you could say you really know her now"

"What… what do you mean?"

"How about if I show you?" Stacy asked, raising her hand toward Cobalt, who took the Lotus Blade off of her back and gave it to Stacy.

"Stacy, stop this!"

Showing no sign of having listened, the cheerleader just adopted a samurai-like position, holding the scabbard on her left hand with her right hand close to the sword's grip, ready to draw the blade in an attack, and for the second time in one day, Jen barely managed to raise her axe in defense to block her opponent's attack, but differing from the last one, which just took her weapon out of her hand, this one sent her flying out of the temple! Her flight didn't stop until she crashed into one of Yamanouchi's walls, leaving her mark dented upon it, and fell like a corpse on the floor, still trying to grasp what just had happened.

'_Stacy?'_

She looked back at the so called Temple of the Yono, finding her old classmate standing at the top of the stairs: In her hand, the Lotus Blade, which she remembered as a crystal katana, had taken the shape of a blood-red double-edge long sword, the sheath thrown aside. She looked…

'_So… powerful…'_

Back at the temple, Dave wanted to run and assist Jen however he could, but having that incredible cheerleader in the way was… well, getting in his way. It didn't help much when he felt Cobalt's hand on his shoulder and her gun against his cheek.

"Going somewhere?"

He tried to think of a sarcastic retort… but right now, he simply couldn't.

"She is not even worthy as my opponent" Stacy stated, thought mostly to himself. Dave barely managed to hear her before noticing the so-called Emperor walking toward her.

"Now… for our deal" He said to her

She looked at him through the corner of her blue eyes with coldness that gave Dave a chill down his spine. Slowly she raised the now corrupted Lotus Blade, giving it to Emperor. In his hand, the sword took once again the shape of a katana, but one darker than night itself. Then he started walking… back into the chamber.

"What are you planning to do?!" The sidekick asked, still held captive by Cobalt.

Emperor's path stopped just in front of statue of the petrified Monkey Fist, looking then at they young boy's eyes. Brown against… familiar brown? Just where had he seen those eyes before?

"Only courage in the face of doubt can lead one to the answer, Magician," He said raising the tainted sword. "Watch… and learn"

And then he did the last thing Dave could have expected: He pierced Monkey Fist's chest with the sword… creating cracks all over his body. Dave could only watch in terror as he saw the fractures expanding, not just around the villain's petrified body, but also following on the ground, then on the walls… and before he knew it, the entire construction was simply falling down!

"Dave!!" He heard Jen screaming.

The millennia old temple of the Yono… finally exploded into thousand of pieces, covering the grounds of the Yamanouchi School in its entirety.

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"This is Agent Will Du" The man wearing a blue uniform and helmet presenting himself in Yori's communicator stated "I'm ready to attack as soon as you assign the target"

The screen then switched to Wade "I'll coordinate your device's signal with the airship's!"

"Please and thank you" Yori replied, causing Wade to twitch for a moment.

She then focused back on Shego, who was firing bullets carelessly in an improvised strategy to keep the Hell's Angel away. She then saw Kei running at Shego to give her another clip for the AK, which she quickly switched as she sidestepped forward, but just when she was about to fire, she ceased her rush…

"What are you doing?" Kei asked her "Thought of something?"

"Yeah…" She replied as the rider was coming right at them again "Move!"

Opting to listen to her, Kei took some distance from her while Shego did something completely unthinkable: She turned around, back to the rider, and started shooting at… nothing but air? Just what the hell was she thinking!?

The Hell's Angel was just about to run over her, but she gave a surprisingly quick jump to avoid it, letting it go forward to meet what could have never been expected. Could it have shown some emotions, it would have expressed shock at the sight of the bullets turning their way back right at it! Quickly, it turned its devilish motorbike, slowing down against the sand as it raised the flames of the wheels to deflect the bullets, but at the same time, becoming what the girls wanted: An easy target.

"Wade!" Yori called "Now!"

"Done!" The genius kid replied, his face suddenly becoming darker "Lock… and let it rain!"

Quickly the girl raised her arm forward, pointing a laser light that came out of the device on her wrist. It took just three seconds of landing it on the fiend for the device to announce what she wanted to hear: "Target identified"

"Beginning launch!" She heard Agent Du saying… before said missiles passed right above her and heading for their objective.

The Hell's Angel was already on the dash again, running away from those missiles like a mouse from a cat. It didn't take much to notice they were tracking it down, so just running wouldn't help. No worries. It had _just_ what it needed…

The fighters cursed out loud as they saw the missiles exploding, not for having hit their target, but for having been covered in a cloud of sand and fire coming from the biker's motorcycle. The bastard…

"It didn't work" Kei said, as Yori and Shego stood beside him.

"Any ideas?" The Asian girl asked.

"This is Agent Du!" They heard from Yori's device "Preparing second launch"

"Tell him to wait!" Shego commanded, and Yori did as told…

All three present on the ground jumped to their sides to avoid their enemy once more, and once done, the girls approached each other.

"I can make those missiles reach him" The green woman said "But I need your help…"

"You don't mean…?" Her partner half-questioned, but saw her answer through the tall woman's eyes "It's too dangerous!"

"Trust me" Shego said smiling and placing her hand in her partner's shoulder "Like I trust you"

Scared and confused, all Yori could do was to put her hand on top of her friend's. "…Shego"

"It's coming back!" Kei warned them.

Yori's hand moved to Shego's shoulder, her expression suddenly becoming determined "Promise me you'll be careful!"

"Of course I will!" The taller woman replied confidently.

With that said, Yori raised her other arm, facing her communicator "Will Du! Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear" He replied.

"And careful now: Listen, you got to fire the missiles as soon as you can locate yourself so that the demon is between you and us. Got it?"

"What are you planning?"

"There's no time to explain, but basically, we can make those missiles reach it"

"Understood. I'll persecute it," He said before cutting out the communication.

And right then, the group on the ground had to elude the Majin one more time. The jet soon located itself behind it and made its best attempt to follow its track.

"Kei, you better stay away now" Shego warned him.

The young man gave her one last clip for the assault rifle and then nodded, beginning to run away from the scene. Now alone, both ladies stared at where the Hell's Angel and the aircraft were coming from. They both put their hands back on each other shoulders, looking directly at each other's eyes. Words were not needed. They simple nodded and, after giving a quick look, Yori grabbed her device once again.

"Du! NOW!!"

They didn't receive any reply except for the missiles ejecting from the jet. At the sight of that, Shego quickly jumped and landed standing nowhere else but Yori's raised arm, which not only held her firmly, but also threw her high, HIGH into the air! Above both the plane and the missiles!

For the second time (and last for today, she vowed), Yori drew her crystalline katana in the last moment to defend herself against the fierce Majin. But while she managed to avoid serious injures, the demon still managed to throw her rolling on the sand right before making its run from the missiles that were persecuting it once again.

From the jet's perspective, Will Du was now contemplating what probably was the craziest maneuver he would ever see in his entire life. That longhaired woman whose face he could not see… not only had somehow reached an unbelievable altitude, but… she landed on one of the missiles he shot! And now she was RIDING it as if it were a flying skateboard!! Just who in the world was that woman!?

Unable to reunite his parted lips, he did all he could do, which was to follow his own missiles as possible as that was. That astonishing lady was escaping him anyway, but just what was she planning? If that biker demon raised its wave of fire once more, then she would… oh, no! It was doing it again!!

For a moment, when he saw her bending to her right, Will thought she was going to jump out of there, which would be the wisest option in his opinion. But he was wrong. Not only she didn't jump, but the missiles didn't explode either because she, somehow, he had no idea how, but it had to be her who _somehow_ managed to turn all the missiles aside, making them elude the gigantic wave of fire and then keep heading toward the Hell's Angel.

"**Wanna heat up, uh!?"**

He could have jumped out of his seat if the security belts didn't hold him. Just what in the world was that "voice"!? And where had it come from? Was… was that the demon!?

"**All right! Then let's dance in hell, baby!!"**

And as he saw what came next, he knew that voice in his head had to be from that insane monster, who was now starting to run in circles on the sand, making said circles smaller as much as he could while the fire from its wheels grew bigger and bigger 'til they became a tornado of sand and fire.

Against such a thing, all he could do was turn the aircraft and start to fly around and at a prudent distance of such phenomena. But now he wondered where the lady with the missiles had gone. He had lost track, but he didn't hear the missiles exploding, so they had to be somewhere…

Like on top of them?

"What the hell is she planning!?" He asked out loud as he looked up at the missiles that were apparently following their rider's will.

And if he thought she was crazy before, then this went beyond the limits: That woman took the missiles and high as she could and then she entered, heading straight down, through the tornado's eye!! Was she a kamikaze woman or what!?

To see the explosion at the bottom of the tornado wasn't really that surprising at this point. To see that woman surviving that, though, was beyond anything Will had ever been trained for. He didn't know whether she had jumped at the right moment or what, but the explosion never really caught her. Instead, it sent her flying upward as she flipped over herself as if she were the coin of fate, until the impulse left her as high as she would reach, and _then_ she stared down, drawing the AK from her back and shooting up to the last bullet, which was soon followed by the now empty weapon.

And as she fell, straight down and fearless, like the comet that long ago designed her fate, she extended both hands, summoning her powers to apply the final blow against that hateful and idiotic rider.

The explosion's smoke spread out reaching even where Yori was standing.

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She did not know when she fell unconscious or when she had awakened. But as soon as she remembered, she stood up immediately, moving away the rocks above her.

Looking around, Jen knew it couldn't have passed too much time. There were ninjas standing around the field, some helping others. Yet, there was no sigh of those involved with her… yet.

It didn't take much until she noticed Dave under the rocks, and screaming his name, she quickly ran to help him, moving the rocks that covered most of his body and removing him from there. The young sidekick was barely aware of what was going on, she noticed as she tried to wake him up. But the raising of another person from beneath the rocks interrupted her actions…

'_Stacy…'_

There she stood, back to her, yet imposing as if the fall of the temple on top of her had simply not happen. Jen could barely recognize this girl as the same cheerleader she knew back in high school… but she knew she had to put an end to this _now_.

Even if it meant to use dirty ways… Stacy was too powerful like to miss this opportunity…

Leaving her partner behind… the teen hero prepared herself to attack her enemy from behind. The axe was in her hand. The path was clear. Stacy was unarmed and still unaware of her presence…

She tried her best not to think about what she was about to do -_kill an ex-classmate_- and ran… as fast, silent and determined as she could, managing to sneak right behind her… but not to execute her, as her arm was stopped as her wrists was caught by Stacy's hand. Jen watched in horror as the blue eyes of the cheerleader stared at her, cold and merciless. Turning around quickly, the blonde girl grabbed the brunette by the shirt and lifted her as is she weighed nothing!

Only two words escaped her lips…

"Sorry, Jennifer…"

…Before Stacy's fist gave her the uppercut of her life, sending Jen high into the air. Still screaming the young hero managed to open one eye… just to see her enemy having caught up with her… to grab her once more and smash her body _hard_ into the ground, breaking the stones beneath her.

And that was just the beginning of the most terrible physical torment Jen ever suffered. It didn't last half a minute, but Stacy made it feel far longer as she made her dance under her will, hurting practically every part of her body with just her bare fists and legs, finishing it with a kick that sent the girl spinning around 'til she fell inert on the ground.

"JEN!!"

Almost in despair, Dave ran to his friend and raised her up in his arms, relieved to see she was still alive, terrified because of her state. Clothes damaged, bruises all over, blood dripping from not significant, but clearly painful wounds. In all of her life, Jen had never been defeated like this. What in the world was that cheerleader!?

"Sta… Stacy!" Jen called for, coughing blood and forcing her eyes open.

Looking up (raising her head never felt so heavy), once again she saw Stacy's powerful image, standing victorious in front of her. Her partners, Cobalt and Emperor, stood at both sides of her, and the Lotus Blade was back in her hand, its now crimson blade over her shoulder, and the moon now glowing behind them.

Jen knew now… she had neither faced enemies so powerful… nor people such as them.

"W-why!?" She dared to ask as her partner held her in his arms.

"This world is coming to an end!" Stacy stated as matter of fact.

"What!?" Dave exclaimed suddenly. Jen's eyes were as open as his.

Jen simply didn't know what to think, not even able to understand what her old acquaintance was implying. Hell, with the way she was feeling, she was barely able to think! She could feel… no, worse: She couldn't even feel most of her limbs! Never in her entire life had she been beaten so badly, let alone feel like this… with her consciousness dissipating, eyes closing against her will, and her pride as wounded as her body. And as she fell in her own abyss, Stacy's words were all that was left for her mind to perceive.

"And I will be its judge…"

And then… it was all black.

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It was hard to even see where she was standing because of the immense cloud of smoke she had submerged herself in. She still let her guard down. Obviously she didn't believe _anything_ could survive _that_. But considering what she's been living through lately, she had learnt the hard way to never take things for granted.

As the smoke dissipated, Shego started to distinguish some things, mainly parts of a wiped out dirt bike, and some bones around. When she finally found the Majin's skull, she let out a relieved sight, but…

"**Hahahahahahaha!!"**

She jumped backwards, instantly raising both arms in defense. She couldn't believe this, but she could still hear the Hell's Angel's laughing! Heck, its skull even seemed to be mimicking the act, even though it never moved when she heard that voice in her mind. For talking out loud, she had torn apart every last part of his body (accessories included) and it was still alive!?

"**That was some race, girl!!"**

Shego twitched. That last message felt… congratulatory?

"**I haven't had so much fun in centuries!"**

A bit less worried, but still alert, she walked toward the Majin's skull, stopping right in front of it and looking down at it.

"**Wasn't that FUN!?"**

Shego smiled… and agreed. "Yeah, it was fun" She let it know. "Now how about you go back to hell?"

"**Who are you to send me there?"**

She blinked "What?"

"**Who are **_**you**_** to judge me?"**

She… couldn't think of anything to say.

"**You?"**

She… she what?

"**You who have crossed forbidden doors to reach this torn apart realm?"**

Her eyes opened wide. Did this creature… know about her!?

"**You who dared to come where you just don't belong?"**

That did it! It was getting on her nerves way too much already!

'_It's not like it was _me_ who opened that door, anyway…'_

"I have a job to do here" She told it, stepping hard on its annoying skull and almost burying it on the ground. "That's enough reason for me to belong where I choose to!"

"**Sure. Whatever lets you die in peace!"**

Shego clicked her tongue. She felt like she was losing this argument and she didn't like it in the least "Can't you even DIE right!?"

"**We never really die"**

That statement scared her a bit, but the only reaction she showed was to frown.

"**Someday… somewhere…"**

Was it vowing revenge or what? She wondered.

"**We'll race again!"**

…

"**Right, baby?"**

The only replied it got was its skull being reduced to dust.

Only after that she noticed something beneath the sand: Another candelabrum, just like the one the cheerleader had and the one that belonged to the previous Majin, which they had stolen. Even after this, she still had no idea for what they were for, but apparently, carrying them would lead other Majins approaching them. Still, if these things were what _he_ was after, then better to take it than leave it available for him.

Her attention was then caught by something else. Turning around, Shego noticed that there was almost neither smoke nor raised sand around anymore, and because of that, she could see once again the town they had reached on the distance, and more importantly, how that Global Justice's agent was horizontally landing his aircraft near said town. Quickly, she began running toward there.

Yori waited patiently 'til the jet landed and its cockpit opened. An apparently oriental, maybe tanned man removed his helmet and came out of there without rush or delay. He looked at his side, noticing a crowd of people from that Egyptian town staring at them, and then he walked toward the Asian girl who waited for him with her arms crossed in front of her chest. He recognized her as the lady who had contacted them through the young Wade Load.

"I have some questions for you" He told her, but not in an aggressive tone of voice "Would you answer them?"

"First… I'd like to say I'm sorry," She told him.

He shook his head "Miss, you don't have to. After witnessing that creature with my own eyes, I can assure you calling Global Justice was the right thing to do"

"That's… not what I meant" She replied.

Will Du was about to ask her what she meant by that when he suddenly heard his aircraft's engine being turned back to life. Alarmed, he turned around and barely managed to see someone standing in the cockpit before he felt the Asian girl's hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry for _this_" She whispered to his ear, before kicking the inner side of his knee, breaking his balance, and then pulling his body backward just to smash it against the ground so hard that almost knocked him out.

By the time he managed to stand up, the jet was already rising, and the best he could do then was to get away from its turbines in order to remain safe. Both women were already in the cockpit, the Asian one obviously in the back/companion seat. But what really caught his attention was the pilot, the one he identified as the woman who had skateboarded the missiles and ultimately destroyed the demon, but at the same time… the woman whom was someone he _knew_.

Too late, anyway. The jet quickly set off, leaving him behind.

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Twelve hours later…

Being the head of an organization such a Global Justice was a stressful job, to say the least, and a responsibility beyond what any human being should be allowed to bear on their shoulders. Elizabeth Direction knew that from the day she first sat in the leader's seat, the same one she was sitting now as she stared at the computer screen in front of her… to find a half-amusing scene. The computer had been connected to the one of Wade Load's during the entirety of the past night, and in the computer now she could see that the young genius had fallen asleep on top of his keyboard.

"Wade, can you hear me?" She spoke through the microphone.

At that, the young boy slowly opened his eye and sat up, half of his face with marked by the keyboard. Dr. Director gave him time to yawn and stretch himself, and only then he noticed her through his computer screen.

"Dr. Director? Oh, sorry you had to see me like that, it's just that…"

"It's okay, Mr. Load" She told him. After all, if someone like him had fallen asleep there, it meant he had to have been working until he just couldn't go on anymore. Or at least so she thought.

"Did you manage to track those two?" She asked him.

"No, not at all" He said, clearly sad about it "I tried to hack into that girl's device again, but she activated a security firewall that even I couldn't penetrate, and later, all of their signal went missing"

"What direction were they heading last time you checked?"

"West, apparently to North America"

Dr. Director made a mental note to start tracking down any flights registered above USA through radar. That woman they talked to, and whoever was her partner, had stolen a GJ Jet, one equipped with latest, still-secret-to-the-world technology. And after that, they also lost contact with the agent Will Du. She didn't even want to think about what they could have done to him. Also, there was another big issue about that Asian looking girl. Mr. Load's hacking abilities were beyond comprehension. He could even penetrate into Global Justice's net before they could do anything to prevent it. But he couldn't hack into that girl's firewall? Who could even encode a security system that even Wade couldn't break in? There was something seriously unnerving about this.

"Dr. Director" Another voice said, and when the one-eyed woman looked up at the computer screen again, she noticed the screen having been divided in two, Mr. Load on the left, and her secretary, Justine Flanner, a blonde nerdy-looking girl (though she'd never refer to her like that) and one of the few people with direct access at her. "We got news!" The young girl told her superior.

"Good news, I hope"

"Will Du has contacted us. He's waiting to speak with you"

She almost smiled. "Put him through"

"In a moment" Justine replied before disappearing from her superior's screen.

"Should I leave?" Wade asked her.

"No" Dr. Director replied, and that one word was all she said.

They both waited for just a few seconds until both of their screen got to see the image of Agent Du… in really unexpected attire.

"Agent Will Du?" The commander asked almost in disbelief.

"Reporting, sir" The unmistakable voice of the young agent replied.

Wade snorted. "What's up with the turban?"

"Camouflage" Will replied, sounding a bit annoyed and not happy to be wearing what practically made him look like a stereotypical terrorist. Turban, scarf around the face and cheap poncho included. "The last ten hours haven't been easy. But I've managed thanks to the help of an American archeologist, a Japanese writer and a rodent guide"

"A rodent guide?" Both persons with whom he was speaking through the computer he managed to access in an actual Egyptian city, asked surprised.

"…Please forget I said that"

"All right, we're glad to know you're okay, Agent" The one-eyed commander told him "We feared the worst"

"So would I have been if I knew whom I was going to meet" He replied. Dr. Director raised her good eye's eyebrow. Will Du rarely used sarcasm.

"Is there anything you have to report, Agent Du?"

"Plenty, actually, but one thing in particular" He replied, looking directly at her. Even through cameras and monitors, the seriousness in his eyes was clear "I have identified one of the women I meet back then. The Asian Girl's partner"

"Identified?" Wade asked out loud.

"Indeed, and Dr. Director… I know this might sound ridiculous, but I swear I know what I've seen and I know who that person was."

Elizabeth Director felt almost afraid to ask: "Who?"

"That woman was no other than Shego"

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**Author's Notes:** Second chapter done and the story progress smoothly, at least so I think. I hope my readers are enjoying it too. Please tell me if you have.

This time I got to thanks my pal **Zearth** for acting as Beta Reader for this chapter, and to everyone who reviewed so far. Also, as some might have noticed, the mention of "Team Probable" in this chapter was a reference to **Slyrr** and his fics (Thanks for the review, buddy, hope you didn't mind), just clarifying. Now, what will follow? You'll see eventually while I try to settle whether to keep Sheek around the story or not.

Next chapter: Ron joins the brawl, and the parties finally meet. Has the dead really risen?


	3. Seeking Death

**Jen Credible: Until The End**

Considering the latest events, to wake up in peace was virtually impossible to achieve. However, Jen didn't wake up unbearably disturbed either, at least right when she opened her eyes to find herself in her office's bedroom, where she had practically been living during the last month, since having added Kim's missions to her workload required her to be available 24-7. But out of the relief obtained from finding herself still alive, the feeling didn't last long when Jen explored her surrounding…

'_What the…?'_

What in the world was Ron Stoppable doing in her makeshift bedroom? She blinked a few times to make sure she wasn't hallucinating, but the image of him sitting on a chair beside the bed didn't fade, nor did the items that he had between his hands which were… wait a sec! Was he knitting some baby clothes!? Those were definitely knitting needles and the yarn ball he was using was pink. But why, in the name of logic itself, was he doing that in her room!?

'_All right, let's have a flashback!'_

Let's see… she remembered going head-to-head with Cobalt, then Stacy came in and… she didn't want to remember anymore.

'_Well, well… didn't I have my ass seriously kicked back there? And by whom…'_

No wonder she was feeling like crap right now. That didn't answer any of her questions, but she was sure she didn't have any memory between back then and now. How much time had passed, anyway? Whatever. Better to just ask Ron than to keep wondering.

"Hey!" She called for, and even speaking made her jaw ache.

Ron, finally noticing Jen was awake, stood up instantly throwing his arms in the air.

"Jen! You're finally awake!" He cheerfully claimed.

"Yeah, so it seems" She replied, "What are you doing here?"

"Taking care of you," he said. "And Han."

He moved aside letting Jen see what his body was blocking from her view so far: A pink cradle in which Ron's baby sister, Hanna Stoppable, rested peacefully.

"What's she doing here?"

"Well… my parents are out for the whole week, so I couldn't just leave her alone at home."

'_Well, at least that explains the weaving'_ She thought for a moment before asking the next question. "Dave called you, right?"

"Right, and told me what happen" He answered, a bit more serious than his usually cheerful 'Ron-ness', "How are you feeling?"

"Well, I…" She dared try to move… just to feel her entire body aching, every muscle suffering and reminding her of the beating she got from Stacy, "I can't move."

"It's okay, don't stress yourself," he said, approaching the bed and arranging the covers around her body.

"It'll take you time to recover, 'specially considering…" he followed, but stopped himself.

"Considering what?"

"Well…" He looked aside, scratching the back of his head "Like I said, Dave told me what happened and… well, he said the doctors claimed that… anyone else but you wouldn't have make it… you know, alive."

That sure sent a shiver down Jen's spine. But she had to admit that, while she had had near-death experiences, nothing could compared to what happen last night… wait, was it last night?

"How long have I've been asleep?"

"Day and half, or is it about two days, y'know, considering the time difference between Japan and here?"

"Does it matter?" She asked, but it didn't seem like he listened.

"Let's see, Dave called me an hour before your arrival so I could go and pick you guys up. That was yesterday in the morning and that's a day and half 'til now, but if we count how much time you were unconscious before that…"

Seriously, were sidekicks always this stressful? "Ron!!"

"What? I'm just trying to add up-" he started, but got interrupted by Rufus coming out of his pocket and climbing his body up to his shoulder to force his lips together.

"Zip it!" The naked mole rat ordered, getting his master to make an annoyed face.

Jen sighed, deciding to postpone a growing urge within her until she asked one last question first; "Dave is out?"

Ron nodded. _'Figured…'_ As annoying as he could be sometimes, Dave was no fool and knew what to do when desperate times demanded of him. He would be taking care of whatever he had to so they would be back in action as soon as possible. But for now...

"Uh… Ron? I kinda need to go to the bathroom."

"Sure! Left door at the end of the hallway!" He said pointing at the bedroom's door. "You can't miss it!"

"…"

If it weren't because it hurt so much just raising her arm, she would have slapped her face right there. _'Damn my luck…'_ She thought _'Out of four, I'm stuck with the idiot'_. Was he deliberately trying to make this more uncomfortable?

"All right, Ron, try reading my lips: _**Me-Can-Not-Move!**_" She deadpanned for him.

Ron blinked continuously for a moment… suddenly going into serious-face mode as he thought of what to do, just making time for the pressure between Jen's legs to become more and more annoying for the injured woman. Just how long was it going to take him!?

"Damn it! Just call Rose so she can help me!"

"Uh… Rose's out" He replied.

"What!?"

"She went out with Dave" He said, sounding a bit nervous.

Jen blinked… realizing the situation was far more… "unmentionable" than what she first thought. Should she wait for them to get back? No way, the pressure was already too much to bear.

"All right" She told Ron. "This is gonna be Awkward with Capital A"

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At that time, outside of the apartment in which Jen's office was installed, a black car was being parked on the front street. Its driver a hero's sidekick, and a tan-skinned redheaded hero's secretary came out to the curb from the passenger side. But instead of closing the door immediately, she looked back at the driver, who had remained silent during the whole trip. The blond young man had barely had any sleep during the last twenty and some hours, and she could notice the bags under his eyes, but far beyond that, what was far more noticeable was the unusual seriousness in his eyes.

"Aren't you coming out, Dave?" Rose said.

He didn't reply, but did come out of the car right after her call, although he didn't move too far away from the door after closing it, either.

"Still worried about Stacy?" the Puerto Rican redhead asked.

The young sidekick rested against the car for a moment before answering.

"You don't get it, do you?" he murmured, barely audible. "Of course, you weren't there"

Rose wasn't someone who'd take things like this lightly, and Jen coming back like she did yesterday was something that almost caused her a heart attack. But she always used to remind them: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Besides…

"Jen didn't stand a chance" Dave continued, "She got totally thrashed by that cheerleader."

"By same-old Stacy?" she questioned. "That's ridiculous."

Dave turned back to look at her, Rose just rested her arms above the car while staring at him across the roof. The look he gave her was nearly accusatory.

"Listen to me" Rose ordered "I may not have seen whatever happened in Japan, but I still remember clearly seeing Jen breaking that idiot's nose when we were back in high school, and that "bitch-leader" couldn't even see it coming. There's no way Jen's going to lose against some attention-junkie with some inferiority complex, you hear me?"

"…I hear ya," he replied, his face down.

"We already called her doctor, and got new equipment for the next mission. Wade and Global Justice are searching for her and her partners, and you can bet they'll find her and contact us immediately. Next time Jen faces her, she'll be ready. But she also needs _you_ to be ready to support her, you know?"

That got Dave to look up at her again, his expression changed.

"So get that annoying cockiness of yours back, regardless of how much I hate it, and let's get going. We got job to do, so I hope you aren't scared or-"

"Me? Scared!?" Dave interrupted her "Sorry, babe. But I don't even know the meaning of that word!"

She smiled a bit; surprisingly happy to see him with that grin of his that usually disgusted her.

"Well, call me babe once more and I'll make sure to you learn the meaning of it."

Nevertheless, Jen needed her sidekicks when the circumstances demanded them, and this was one such time. She was happy to see that at least one of the defeated members of their team was already back on his feet. Jen? She wasn't _that_ worried anymore. She knew she would be all right with time. She just had to make sure Dave was ready for whenever Jen was.

"Now, how about you get the briefcases and we can finally head inside," she said before turning around and beginning to walk toward the building.

"I could use a hand, you know!?" He called for, but without much response. He cursed out loud, there were three briefcases. She could make things easier by taking just one, right?

As well as he could manage; Dave took the three silver briefcases from the car's trunk and carried them to the door Rose just opened, kicking it closed as he passed by. Two hallways and one elevator later, the duo arrived at Jen's office, and the sidekick left the briefcases on the table as soon as he could.

"I'm gonna check on Jen."

"All right," Rose replied, as she sat on the office's desk and turned on the computer. She needed to contact Wade and check if there was any news regarding the villains Jen fought and lost against. She was waiting for the laptop to load when Dave suddenly returned to the office, a scared look on his face.

"Jen and Ron are not here!"

"What!?" She exclaimed, standing up so quickly that the chair fell behind her.

"_What was that!?_" Both Dave and Rose suddenly heard. It was Ron's voice.

"_Eek! Ron, watch out!_" That was Jen! The voices were coming from the bathroom.

Sensing danger, both teens hurried through the short hallway, quickly but without making any sound, and stood close to the bathroom's door. Dave looked at the redhead, who returned the stare, and held three fingers up in his hand. Rose nodded and then the sidekick made a silent countdown to three with his fingers, and by three, he kicked the door open, both of them entering immediately and expecting anything… except what they found.

Both Ron and Jen (nobody else was in the room) were there. Ron standing still with his hands over his eyes, and Jen dropped on the floor between the blond boy and the toilet. Nothing wrong so far, but if someone took in consideration that both their pants, plus Jen's underwear, were covering nothing but their ankles, the picture took a whole different meaning.

"This-! This isn't what it look like!!" Jen exclaimed with all of her might, her face even more red than when Cobalt kissed her.

"We… we can explain!" Ron added, still not daring to move his hands from his eyes.

"No thanks!" Rose instantly replied, attempting close the door, but…

"Actually!" Dave interrupted, stopping the door from getting closed "I'm curios, so-AUCH!" But apparently, Rose decided that the door just _needed_ to be closed, even if that meant smashing it against the very insolent sidekick who stood beside her. "Hey!"

"You asked for it!!" She told him as she walked away, back to the apartment's office.

"That's it, I'm ordering a camera!" He told himself. With the picture he could have taken at the Yamanouchi and the one he could have taken just now… heck, the skies the limit!

No sooner the sandy blond sidekick went back to the office, they heard someone stepping out of the bathroom. Dave attempted to look, but the team's secretary caught his ear stopping him right in his tracks, just letting him go when Ron entered the office. Like Jen, he was also blushing and seemed reluctant to make eye contact with them.

"Uh… Rose, could you go and help Jen go back to her room?"

The redhead looked at him for a moment, her mind puzzled, but decided not to ask. She doubted she would like the answer, so she just got up from the chair she had just rearranged and headed for the bathroom once more, leaving the sidekicks alone in the office.

"Man…" Dave said, loud enough for Ron but making sure Rose wouldn't hear it, "You got guts!"

"Uh?"

"I knew you had eyes for her, but I never though you'd actually make a move, let alone success! Just how did you make it!?"

"Make… what?"

"Did you play the generous caregiver!? I should try that one. Oh, wait. Lemme guess, it was your baby sister, right? Jen always had a soft spot for babies…"

"Uh… little lost here?"

"Seriously!" He walked up to him and patted him on both shoulders, "Talk about scoring!"

Finally getting what he was meaning, Ron's eyes grew wider than ever before, "WHAT!?"

Their attention was suddenly caught by the sound of the bathroom's door opening once again and Rose coming out of it with Jen in her arms and heading toward the bedroom. Jen and Ron exchanged glares for a moment, but instantly looked aside blushing heavily. Dave, who just couldn't have _not_ notice that, waited until the ladies went to the room to go on.

"Ronald Dean Stoppable… you're the MAN, buddy!"

"NOTHING HAPPENED!!!" Ron screamed with all of his might, and Dave could swear he just heard Jen exclaiming the same thing over in the bedroom.

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"I swear!" Jen insisted, "N-nothing happened!"

"…right" Rose _agreed_, still carrying the girl towards her bed.

"Honestly, it wasn't what it looked like, he was just helping me!"

"I know"

"I… I seriously cannot move by myself, or barely at least, but I needed to pee and so he was doing it all for me and-"

"Do you think I really wanna hear this?"

"And he didn't take his pants off! That was me… no! Wait, not like that! It was my fault but not because I wanted to! He dropped me when you two came in and when I tried to grab something but the only thing my hand found was his belt, and-"

"ENOUGH!" The redhead stated, dropping her friend on the bed. "Look, I don't _care_, okay!?"

The young hero just lowered her head, looking like a child who had just been scolded. "…okay"

"Problem?" Rufus asked, emerging from Hana's cradle

"You stay there!" The tanned woman spoke at Rufus, who just went back to look after his master's baby sister.

Rose, for her part, let out a long sigh and sat in the bed beside her friend. "Seriously… you can do it with whoever you want. Who am I to judge? Besides, you always had a thing for blonds…"

"Hey, I'm telling you that-!"

"And speaking of blond-_es_" The secretary interrupted, and her friend knew where she was going now "Jen… was it really Stacy?"

The brunette looked unsure… and took a moment before replying. "It _was_ Stacy, but… she wasn't the Stacy I knew anymore."

"What do you mean?" A puzzled Rose asked.

"She… changed," Jen explained. "She got strong, _really_ strong. And not just that, her personality was really different too. I almost couldn't recognize her."

Both stayed in silence for a moment, 'til Jen looked up to meet her friend's light blue eyes

"What could have happened to her?"

"No clue" The Puerto Rican girl replied, "It's been a year since we last saw her, and a lot can happen in a year."

"Do you think you could try doing some research?"

"I'll see what I can find out."

"Thank you."

Again both stayed in silence, and Jen thought she'd better relax and try to get better soon. But for the moment, as much as it pained her to remember the last meeting with her, Stacy was all she could think of. She just couldn't understand it. She knew Stacy had never been a gentle soul, to say the least. In fact, she was probably the Queen Bitch back in high school; Empress of Meanness, as Rose put it once. Now… what was she? A super strong chick determined to…?

Her train of thoughts was suddenly interrupted by a knock at the door, followed by Dave's "Can we get in?"

Jen nodded, Rose spoke, "Come in!"

The door opened and both sidekicks came in. Ron still wouldn't dare make eye contact with Jen.

"So… how are you feeling?" Dave asked Jen.

"Like crap."

"Couldn't have expected any less."

"So!" Jen started, and both Dave and Rose noticed that 'leader tone' of her, "Have you gotten anything regarding our favourite trio?"

"Stacy and her allies?" Dave asked, Jen's stare confirmed it. "Nothing yet, but we got Wade working on it, and according to him, so is Global Justice."

"We got the big guys' help? Wow, didn't expect that."

"I'm not sure they are giving us much priority, though," Rose commented. "Wade told me he got into a sitch with Global Justice and some vigilantes yesterday. Apparently, someone contacted him from Egypt."

"Someone contacted Wade?" Ron asked.

"Egypt?" But Jen got their attention "Isn't that where Jack is right now?"

"Oh, now that you mention him!" Rose exclaimed, suddenly remembering something, "We just got an e-mail from him. He's arriving back here tomorrow!"

"Really!?" Dave exclaimed letting Jen know he didn't known either.

"Yeah, he says he got a lot to tell us, by the way. Seems like he also had some adventure in the sand."

"That… wouldn't be related to Wade's stitch, would it?" Ron wondered out loud.

"Doubt it. Jack doesn't know enough about computers to be able to contact Wade from the middle of nowhere."

"But who contacted Wade?" He asked, getting curious regarding the stitch.

"Even he doesn't know, he has no clue of _how_ that person contacted him either." Rose filled him in, "It's all a mystery."

"We got another case?" Dave asked. This mystery actually sounded interesting to him.

"Let's focus on Stacy's case first, okay?" Jen insisted, sounding just a tad more serious than what would be expected from her.

"Why are you so worried about her?" Her sidekick asked.

"Doy… have you already forgotten what she said?" The heroine replied.

"What did she say?" Ron asked.

Dave coughed and imitated the words, and gestures, as he remembered them, "The world is coming to an end, and I will be its judge!"

Ron blinked, "Is she planning to…?"

"Destroy the world" Jen finished for him, her expression thoughtful.

"C'mon" Dave said "It's not like we haven't heard THAT one already."

"Trust me" His leader replied "It sounds a lot more convincing after you get the beating of your life."

"Whatever" he countered, "We just have to find them and stop them, and we're already set for that. Rose and I just brought back new equipment from Wade's house, and we already contacted your doctor to get you better."

"My doctor!?" Jen exclaimed, suddenly looking scared "Wait, you don't mean…"

Her voice was interrupted then by the sound of the doorbell, which only made her feel even more scared.

"Oh, he's here!" Dave said before walking out of the room and to receive said person.

"NO!" The brunette screamed, much to Ron's surprise. She then forced her arm to move and grab Rose's arm to plead with her, "Please don't do this!!"

"Sorry" Rose replied, standing up and starting to walk toward the door, "You know you need this."

"Ron!" She pleaded. He was her last hope, "Get me out of here!!"

"Wh-what!?" The blond sidekick replied, feeling quite confused.

"Pleeeeease!!"

"You don't move a finger!" Rose ordered him just before finally exiting the room, leaving the poor boy quite confused and without an idea of what to do, yet, he _did_ follow her orders.

"This isn't happening!" Jen cried.

Not much later (it would never be later enough), Jen and Ron heard the apartment's door opening and closing and a voice saying, "Hello," that sent a shiver down the heroine's spine.

Ron never expected, nor even imagined, he would ever see Jen whining like this.

Soon Rose came through the door followed by a man that Ron could have sworn he'd seen before. He was 'almost' tall, in his thirties, with dark blue hair with some bangs falling over his right eye, and wearing a doctor's typical lab coat, with the exception that his was, well, black. The secretary greeted him, "Welcome, Dr. Hadley."

Once again, Jen wished she could slap herself.

"Can someone please remind me, for the umpteenth goddamn time, just WHY is THIS guy my doctor!?"

"Reason Number 1" Ienzo Hadley started, "Your father's paying me a lot for this."

If anything, Jen was sure this was her father's way of punishing her for having taken up this job that he never approved of.

"Reason Number 2," Dave followed while entering the room, "He knows what he does."

"Are you actually supporting him!?" Jen asked him.

"And I actually enjoy it," He admitted with half a smile.

"Reason Number 3," Dr. Hadley went on, "I know your body better than anyone else."

"Do you have ANY idea of how wrong that just sounded!?"

"Oh, _yeah_!" The doctor stated cockily. "Reason Number 4: This is the best way I know to express my feelings for you."

"What FEELINGS!?" The teen hero barked.

"How much I _hate_ you."

'_Touché'_, Jen admitted to herself, "All right, enough with the reasons. Let the fun start."

"Why do I get a feeling I _don't_ want to know what this is all about?" Ron decided to ask.

"Just grab your sister and your pet and leave the room," Rose told him, leaving as well.

The sidekick gave the hero one last worried look.

"I'll survive," She told him as her doctor approached the bed, putting the briefcase besides.

Ron just took the cradle, with Hanna and Rufus in it, and exited the bedroom with Dave closing the door after he left.

"Now, seriously," Ron said to Dave, "How bad can this treatment possi-?"

"AAAAAAGH!" But he was interrupted by the sound of Jen screaming from the recently exited room "YOU SON OF A- ACK! AGH!!"

Let alone said, the blond sidekick was already trembling with eyes wide open.

"It's like this all the time," Dave told him, as if the issue was anything but serious or dramatic. The screams could still be heard as background sound, "It usually takes about an hour."

And as if there was nothing to worry about, he just walked to the main room and sat on the couch in front of the table. Ron, trying to act as composed as Jen's terrifying screams allowed him to, left the cradle close to the table and sat besides the other sidekick. But he could swear, those screams were going to give him nightmares.

Rose, for her part, just went back to her computer at the desk.

Dave, unnoticed by the rest, took something out of his pocket and stared at it carefully. It was the Tarot Card that the self-proclaimed Emperor had given him the other night, "The Magician", thus earning that title, at least from the villain's perspective.

For some reason, he had been unable to leave this card behind, feeling as if it had some meaning for him. But what? And why? Regardless of how much he tried to think of it, he still couldn't figure it out.

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Witnessing irony was one thing, but being a victim of it? It was painfully annoying…

The shadow of a dead woman reflected on that as she helped the young ninjas of the Yamanouchi School clean up the grounds. The incident that happened two nights ago left it worse than the attack from the Yono, anyone would tell her. But it wasn't the comparison what called her attention…

It was that _he_ had been involved in said incident.

How infuriatingly ironic, the women going by the names of Shego and Yori thought once they arrived here. They weren't even following a lead but they ended up exactly where he struck, along with two other women. One of them described as a blonde, powerful-beyond-belief cheerleader…

'_So she survived… damn!!'_

And on top of that: The Lotus Blade. Just what the hell did they want it _for_, anyway!?

After throwing a rock down a cliff, one of the many that belonged to the so called Temple of the Yono and that had to be removed from the school's training field, the green-skinned woman rubbed her forehead with the back of her hand, wiping off the sweat. Then she turned around to meet a face she had been trying to avoid.

"Here" Yori said, offering a white towel.

No, not the Yori she came with, not her tomboyish partner. She was in front of the Yori that had been raised at this school, and the person who was her only reason for being reluctant about coming here. But both vigilantes had agreed that this was their best checkpoint for now.

Still, she took the towel, and then drank from a small bottle of water the black-haired ninja was offering too, dismiss her right after. But the Japanese woman didn't leave…

"That woman," she said out of the blue, "the one that came with you… what's her name?"

"Yori," she answered quickly because she thought that taking her time would only seem more suspicious and drag this out.

"So I've heard."

"Then why did you ask?" Crap… she shouldn't have asked that.

"She…" Yori never finished that sentence. Instead, she walked off. Shego didn't stop her.

Yori went to face Yori.

She found the tomboyish girl sitting by a tree, the same one that had been cut down during the recent battle. Her face practically read; "don't talk to me", but it wasn't like they were going to get anywhere that way.

"Gokigen'yō," the ninja greeted.

Yori acknowledged her. She wasn't looking _at_ her, though.

"Hi."

Well, it was something.

"Are… you okay?" She didn't want to seem meddlesome, but something about the tomboyish girl's eyes made her ask that.

Yori shook her head.

"Would you like to talk about it?" Was that… sadness?

Yori shock her head again.

"All right" The school's ninja said. It sounded like giving up, but she was just recognizing that showing kindness was getting her nowhere. "I wanted to talk with you."

The tomboyish vigilante looked at Yori through the corner of her eye, "About?"

"This might sound weird, but aside from the name, you really seem… familiar."

She might not be able to pinpoint what, but there was something with this girl… her eyes, her lips, her nose, her skin tone and hair. In short, _everything_ about his girl looked familiar for her!

"It's as if we had met at some point in the past, but I just can't remember when or where."

"Don't."

"Uh?" Don't what? Hadn't they met?

"Don't remember. Don't try and dig up the past. Just… forget you ever met me."

"What?" the ninja didn't get it, and surprised herself for how loud she exclaimed her next words, "But why!?"

"Ignorance is bliss."

And so, the tomboyish Yori stood up and began to walk again.

"Wait!" The Yamanouchi's ninja called. "There's something else I had to tell you."

"What?" Yori asked, without even bothering to look her way.

"Master Sensei asked for yours and your partner's presence. He's waiting at the temple."

"Got it. Please inform Shego about it."

The ninja decided it was better to leave it at that, but… she'd never told the visiting Yori about the temple's location.

Nevertheless, she went to inform the green-skinned woman about that too.

"Thanks" Shego said and began walking, again without asking directions.

"You know…" The ninja expressed, "pain that is shared with those who care for you… happens to be far easier to bear."

Shego smirked "So I've been told more times I could ever care to count."

What was that supposed to mean? Yori wondered.

"Make sure to pass it down to your children," and so Shego left.

The temple Yori was talking about was a small Japanese construction located behind the Yamanouchi School, just a small walk away from it. Both secretive girls reached that place on their own and opened the double door once they were together, walking inside to meet the only person waiting there for them behind a small bonfire that served as the only illumination for the closed square space once they closed the door behind them.

"We are here," Yori said.

"What is it?" Shego asked.

"Please" Master Sensei began, "Make yourselves comfortable."

The girls stared at each other for a second, and then decided to sit in front of the bonfire and listen to whatever the old man had to say.

"My girls… I fear the price you may owe because of your decision might be far greater than what you believe."

Yori and Shego remained silent.

"But at the same time, just as great may be our need right now. I'm aware there's a special reason for your presence here, a reason that has paid us a recent visit."

Yori gritted her teeth.

"Because of that, if you're still willing to walk down this road, knowing you might never be able to return from it, I shall help you leading your way."

Shego blinked. "Do you know were we can find him? And his allies?"

"They stole our most protected possession, the Lotus Blade," he looked at Yori. "But as you may already know, the Lotus Blade is but a mirror of the soul and a mirror of itself."

Yori's eyes opened wide.

"You know what you must do."

'_Leave it to him to guess everything about us without even telling him,'_ Shego thought as her tomboyish partner stood up and walked toward the fire, unsheathing the sword from her back and placing it right on top of the blaze, letting the heat dig into its blade, turning it red, a crimson red that started to emit a terrifyingly scarlet light.

Soon, the light spread out over the whole room until nothing else but the light could be seen. All that remained to the present ones' sight was an illusion brought by the sword, which now looked like a blood-red double-edge long sword, and it looked as if it was placed on top of a table, along with a candelabrum, in the middle of a living room. Shego and Yori could only watch, but not interact with the scene. Not like other two individuals they were now staring at…

"Are you just gonna sit on your ass for the whole day?" a cerulean-haired woman asked to a blonde one sitting on a chair in front of the table where the sword was, arms crossed in front of her and her legs on top of said table. Shego and Yori recognized her.

The cheerleader just looked back at her. "Why?"

"I dunno," the woman in the blue spandex replied. "Aren't you bored?"

"And what can you offer?" the other one retorted. "If you want to do something for me, go and tell Emperor to find the next Fiend already."

"Actually, he already did," the thief replied with a smirk on her face. "Just wanted to mess with you."

The blonde teen didn't reply.

"He's waiting for us in the living room," the older woman added, "Seriously, what is it with you two that once you settle down somewhere, you don't want to move around anymore? I'm tired of playing the messenger girl."

Stacy stood up. "All right. Get ready, we're leaving soon."

Cobalt winked at her. "Want to see me getting ready?"

"Why not?" The cheerleader replied with shrug and, after picking up both items from the table, followed the older woman.

The fact that the sword was being moved was the only thing allowing Shego and Yori to keep tracking them. It made the vision a bit dizzying, since the blade was like the camera that was transmitting the images, and the fact that it was being moved around constantly made _everything_ but the sword move around from their perspective.

The constant move stopped once both women entered a room that, for its purpose, it was much wider than needed in either Shego's, Yori's or Stacy's opinion, but as Stacy would have pointed out if she'd give a damn about it, this was Cobalt's stuff. It did, however, make the two "voyeurs" learn that this was Cobalt's house, wherever it was.

"I wonder what should I bring now," She wondered out loud, looking at the _insanely_ big collection of guns, shotguns, machine-guns, rifles and plenty of other firearms that decorated all the walls of the room and several shelves included. There was enough firepower in this room like to supply an _army_. "Any idea of what we'll be facing?"

"Us," Shego said out loud, even though she knew they wouldn't hear her.

"No," Stacy replied simply.

"Oh, well, in that case, this will do" She said picking a FN P90 submachine gun. An expert in guns would remark that as a weak choice because of the P90 being considered a PDW (Personal Defense Weapon), but would they know of Cobalt's enhancements on her little baby, one would think twice before even attempting to make the comment. "My little Thor is good in any field and against any opponent."

Both secret witnesses smirked.

"Whatever, let's get going," the cheerleader replied, and the dizzying effect started once again until both women reached a luxurious living room (Cobalt surely enjoyed _finery_), where _he_ was…

"I am so glad you've arrived…" The man wearing a ninja suit and sitting in the floor while playing with the Tarot cards replied.

"Emperor," Stacy called, "What did you find out?"

"Find out?" he repeated. "Fool, there was never anything to find out. The truth lies within us, for us to decipher."

"Get to the _goddamn point_ already!"

Emperor moved his hands around the floor, placing the Tarot Cards in certain positions. By the time he finished, there were eight cards placed as a circle. The Fool, the Magician, the Emperor, the Chariot, Strength, the Hermit, Wheel of Fortune and the Devil were all placed in a way they were all pointing to a central point in the middle of them.

"Life is nothing but a travel to the grave," he said, placing the final card in the middle of the rest. "That's why… those like us, players of destiny, constantly seek our way toward Death."

Indeed, the final card placed was no other but Death itself.

"And where _is_ Death?" The blonde asked.

"Madrid, Spain!" the ninja replied, smoothly standing up and, just by raising his hand, claiming all the cards back, which flew and hid in the book he always held with him. "He's waiting for us."

"Cobalt," the cheerleader called, "Get everything ready."

"Roger!" She said, then saluted, and left the living room.

But leaving Emperor and Stacy alone, as Shego and Yori realized, brought about… tension.

"What are you planning to do this time?" Stacy asked, lifting the crimson sword and pointing it toward the tall man. Last time, Emperor hadn't done much beyond acting as method of transportation with his teleporting abilities. She expected him to do as much this time, but…

"I'll cooperate with the two of you," the ninja replied. "This time, you'll need our help."

"Why? Do you think someone else will be present there?"

"Oh, I'm sure we'll have plenty of guesses there," he said, approaching her and suddenly grabbing the sword by the blade, moving it in a way that, for spying girls' surprise, it twisted their angle of vision so that it ended up with him facing directly at Yori.

'_He couldn't…'_

"Isn't that right?!" Emperor asked, his brown eyes focused…

'_No way!'_

"Sister!?" …on Yori.

The shock was great, but not enough for Shego, who turned her attention toward her partner, whose facial expression and trembling body didn't hide any of the anger boiling inside of her.

"Sister!?" Stacy repeated, moving the sword away from him "What are you talking about!?"

"Oh, nothing," he replied, his voice sounding casual. "Just nothing."

But his head still turned… to look at the shorthaired girl once again, and even though he wore a mask, they could _feel_ him smirking!

Yori wouldn't have it anymore, and following her instinct she ran toward the image of Stacy, grabbing the sword she held by the grip and, screaming out her fury, slashed the image of Emperor, who vanished… along with the rest of the illusion.

A couple of seconds later they were back on the dark and small room, with the fire in the center being the only source of light. The pale skinned woman walked over to her partner and placed a hand over her shoulder, stopping the heavy breath that could only keep up with her anger.

"It's okay," she told her. "We'll get him."

Yori nodded, and placed her sword back on the sheath on her back. Shego then looked at Master Sensei.

"Thank you for your help. We'll be leaving now"

"Wait," he called, only when they were already at the door. "My girls, please… do not forget, for your own safety, what you're really fighting for."

They looked back at him, stern expressions on their faces, but… with uncertainness in their heart.

What were they really fighting for? They had an objective, but…

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Ron had been looking at the door of Jen's bedroom for the last two minutes, the moment since Jen's screams had ended, to be precise. Was this because the treatment was finished? (It had lasted "only" 45 minutes) Or because the – he gulped – _patient_ was finished? He didn't even dare to open the door, let alone ask for either Dave's or Rose's opinion. He had already learned during the time the screams lasted that their completely different ways to take them would make it hard, not to mention uncomfortable, to even have a conversation regarding whatever Jen was going through.

In the end, the door was opened from the inside. But when the person who came out was not Jen, but rather Dr. Hadley, he stopped breathing.

"I-Is s-she okay…?"

"Unfortunately…" He stared, taking a moment to sigh and raise his briefcase to leave it resting behind his shoulder "…that brat survived my treatment, _again._"

Without waiting another second, Ron moved the doctor aside and ran into the room screaming the brunette's name. Ienzo Hadley, for his part, walked toward the exit without waiting for anyone to open the door for him.

"Bye-bye," Rufus said, waving his little paw from Hanna's cradle.

"Get cancer," The doctor told him, giving him the finger.

"Hey!" The naked mole rat exclaimed, "Be nice!"

"Get cancer, please."

And with that, he left the apartment. Moments later, Dave and Rose noticed Jen coming out of her room, with a worried Ron walking close to her to make sure she wouldn't trip and fall.

"You sure look like hell," Dave told her.

And indeed: Not only Jen's hair was a mess, but her entire body was covered in sweat, also releasing steam, and she _evidently_ had wet her pants during the treatment. Not that she seemed to mind any of these facts, anyway.

"How are you feeling?" Rose asked.

She moved her head to both sides. They could all hear the crack-like sounds of her bones. "Good as new"

"Great," Rose replied, standing up. "Ready to go and say: 'Ole, Toro!'?"

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"A plague of demons have emerged in Madrid," Rose explained to the team from the monitor of the jet they were flying on. "I've heard these are some sort of demonic bulls."

"Not something we've faced before, have we?" Dave wondered out loud from his seat.

"Can't say for sure," The Puerto Rican girl replied. "I hate making assumptions, but the description I was given 'bout them was pretty vague, yet it has lead me to believe that these might not exactly be demons, but rather specters."

"That explains the Holy Water you made us bring along," Jen commented, double-checking the small bottles on her equipment belt.

"Exactly," she confirmed, "Should my suspicion be proven right, be sure that whatever you guys attempt to fight them with, be it weapons or your own fists, is bathed in that water."

"Madrid already in sight!" Crash, the agent from Global Justice (previously member of Team Impossible) sent for them as pilot, reported. The crew of three (four counting Rufus) looked through to windows down at the Spanish city. "Reaching drop-point in five minutes."

"What's the drop-point?" Dave asked.

"The bullfighting arena," Rose informed them, "Reports say that the specters are coming from there."

"Specters from an arena? How much sense does that make?" Jen questioned.

"How much sense do _any_ of your missions make?" Ron asked, notably worried. His experience fighting supernatural things wasn't anything to brag, not like he had anything to brag about anyway, but this particular inexperience had him scared.

"Hey!" Jen protested, "It's not like my profession involves defying logic –! Okay, sometimes it does! But hey, someone has to do it!"

"And someone has to be careful," Rose added, catching her friend's attention. "Remember Jen, you have just recovered, and you know even now you're not one-hundred percent. Know what that means?"

The brunette sighed and rested on her chair. "Yeah, I know… I'll be careful."

"Yeah, right!" Dave retorted, even though Jen didn't speak to him. "There'll be flying bulls before you ever actually start being caref–" But then his words were interrupted by the sound of something breaking into the back part of the airship. When the group turned around… "Okay, I take that back."

"Those cows can fly!?" Ron yelled before the recently arrived specter bull rushed toward them even on the insides of the flying, considerably small airship. All presents barely managed to avoid the ramping ghost, but nobody could stop it from destroying everything on its path, including the airships control before it finally got out.

"We're going down!" Crash exclaimed, stating the obvious while Rufus started yelling "Mayday" continuously.

Seconds later, the ship crashed on the streets of Madrid, a big explosion following, only adding up to the chaos present in the city. People running, screaming, fighting for their lives as the demonical phantoms attacked them, killing them more often than not.

Jen's group and the pilot, whom had jumped from the airship to a building's rooftop on the last moments, saw the massacre with shock in their eyes.

What Jen lived for… was to prevent this. To stop the interaction between demons and human that could provoke events like these. They always managed to, so far, as this type of results needed days of preparation, and it could hardly ever expand like this, but…

But in less than one day, this city was pure chaos. Wherever they'd look at there was bloodshed, corpses, bull-like demons causing havoc and more people dying. Who in the world could have caused this during less than a day?

Jen didn't know, but she did vow to herself:_ 'That person _is_ going to __**pay**__!'_

"Jen?" Her sidekick called out once he noticed the look on her face, but it was too late. She didn't listen… he knew, this was the kind of things she simply could _not_ forgive.

She picked up a bottle of holy water, threw it up to the air… and slashed it with her axe, bathing the weapon on the sacred liquid, just before jumping off the building and slice through a bull flying at her, and finally landing on the street.

The bullfighting arena wasn't too far from there, and it was quite obvious now that that was the epicenter of this supernatural infestation. Without wasting any time, Jen began making her way through the bulls with all the agility her experience as a demon hunter had given her. The holy water was surely helping, practically letting her cut through these creatures' "bodies" like a hot knife through butter. However, knowing she would not be able to move forward so easily, she concluded she would need a ride… even if said ride had to be a _demon_.

Without thinking twice, she lured one of the bulls at her and jumped on its back; glad to see the supposed ghost's essence was actually solid enough to sustain her. She held it by one horn and stabbed the axe on its neck, keeping it controlled as she leaded the beast to where she wanted: The arena.

She killed the demon right at the entrance, and after getting rid of two more that got in her way, she finally entered the huge complex, running through a dark tunnel until finally arriving at the central area… just to find it empty.

Nobody in the arena, nobody at the grandstands. The place was deserted, but then, how come the bulls were coming from here? There HAD to be something here.

"C'mon, show yourself!" She exclaimed. She knew someone had to be here, and she'd get him or her to come out in any way possible. "Think you can unleash a horde of specters and leave it at that? Come here if you dare and I'll show you something mightier than bulls!"

"**I'm GLAD to hear that!"**

The young woman shivered for a moment. Had that voice come… from inside of her head?

"Who… what the…!?"

"**The flames of your passion beckon me to the battlefield, human!"**

That voice… it was not human, and she couldn't recall any demon actually speaking with such clarity. And again, the voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Whoever was responsible for this… wasn't normal.

"Who ARE you!?"

"**I am who, amidst blood and applause, has slain countless beasts in myriad lifetimes! I have come to be recognized as Death itself! Along my trustworthy Espada, I've made of my purpose to seek through eternity the true art of assassination, and for that, my hunt can no longer be limited to beast, but to those who are willing to challenge me under the name of Grim Reaper!"**

"What are we waiting for then?" she dared mock. "Here I got a one-way ticket straight to hell for you"

She heard him laughing… and then, in the middle of the arena, an explosion occurred and quickly dissipated, leaving behind a figure standing among smoke. The human-shaped creature was dressed like a classical torero, his flamboyant uniform blue and gold, all with boots, hat and gloves and wielding a _Mameluke Sabre_ and _Capote_. His most distinguishable trait, however, was his skull face, which proved his words: It was like starting at none other but the incarnation Death.

"**I am Matador."**

He vowed, accompanying his introduction, and then, with the same apparent formality, looked at his opponent.

"**What is your name, my challenger?"**

"Jennifer Angela Credible" She replied, taking a fighting stance.

"**It's been centuries since I have last had a worthwhile battle. To think I'd find this passion coming from a human's heart… it's even nostalgic!"**

He, too, adopted his posture for combat.

"**Your body seems rather weak, if you allow me to say, but I certainly hope your will shall make up for that."**

She reminded silent. Never before she had faced someone like this. It might even be so that all of her experience might prove useless in this battle, so she'd _really_ have to extra careful.

She couldn't afford losing, after all.

"**Jennifer… it's truly regrettable that we have no public to please, but regardless, I am confident in that we will prove an outstanding performance"**

"Can't wait," She declared. "Come at me!"

"**Let's dance!!"**

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**Author's Notes:** Not much to say here. Yeah, the fic is taking its time, but it's still going on.

Next Chapter: The living meets the dead.


End file.
